Startups founded by women continue to be underrepresented in early-stage fundraising. Kingscrowd data on equity crowdfunding (Reg CF) and Reg A+ deals offers a unique lens through which to examine this phenomenon. Unlike traditional institutional raises, equity crowdfunding platforms provide full transparency on both the proportion of startups seeking capital with at least one female founder and the share of capital these startups receive. This is where the data becomes revealing: despite a stable share of women-led deals, these startups consistently secure less capital than their share of deals would suggest. Let’s explore why.
Systemic Roots Beyond Crowdfunding
The first key disparity lies in deal representation: women-led startups simply make up a smaller portion of available deals. This underrepresentation isn’t unique to crowdfunding but reflects broader societal trends. For example, while women now outnumber men in overall college enrollment and graduation rates, they remain significantly underrepresented in technology and engineering fields—men account for 79% of graduates in these areas.
Since many successful startup founders come from technical backgrounds such as engineering, computer science, or other science disciplines, the talent pool of potential female founders is disproportionately smaller.
Moreover, women face additional barriers at the leadership level. Only 29% of C-suite positions are held by women, a statistic that reflects both systemic limitations in opportunity and, in the context of founding teams, lower levels of confidence among women in their ability to scale companies. Typically, women exhibit more under-confidence while men exhibit more over-confidence.
Ultimately, these phenomena explain why every year, only ~25% of deals have at least one women founder. The pool of technical founders is lower, the pool of medical founders too – with only 38% of active physicians being women, and non-technical women founders are still facing a glass ceiling.
So, while fewer women-led startups are raising capital, what’s more striking is why they consistently raise proportionally less than their male-led counterparts. If women are underrepresented in ECF due to chronic underrepresentation in scientific fields and leadership roles, why aren’t the ones who start ECF deals raising their proportional share of funding?
A Deal-Funding Gap Driven by High-Performing Rounds
In 2023, women-led startups raised 53% less capital than their share of deals would predict, based on equity crowdfunding data. While investor gender bias is a hypothesis that cannot be verified here, the data suggests deeper structural reasons.
Kingscrowd data shows that no startup with at least one female founder has raised over $5 million online, whereas all-male founding teams have raised amounts up to $75 million. Women-led companies are particularly underrepresented in Reg A+ offerings, which are designed for larger capital raises. Interestingly, the funding gap is about half narrower in Reg CF, suggesting that women-led startups face fewer hurdles raising smaller amounts but struggle more in scaling their raises.
One key reason lies in the types of industries attracting major investment. The startups raising $10M+ are often in fields like robotics, automotive technology, and other science-driven sectors—areas where women are historically underrepresented. Investor preferences for these capital-intensive, hardware-heavy industries exacerbate the deal-funding gap for women-led startups.
Success stories
Nevertheless, many women-led companies successfully raise online.
- Orange Comet, a video game company, led by Yong Yam, COO, already raised $2 million on Dealmaker Securities.
- Overplay, another video game company, led by Caroline Strzalka, COO, already raised $1.6 million on Wefunder in its current round, and $1.1 million two years ago.
- AptDeco, a furniture resale platform, led by Reham Fagiri, CEO, already raised $700k on Wefunder and more than $5 million in this round.
Several women-led companies also succeed in the healthcare industry like Sen-Jam Pharmaceutical.
Women-founded deals can definitely succeed in online raises, but like in other areas of society, a glass ceiling remains – until when?
