Put Your Money Where the Women Are

HUR TABLE GUESTS

Jul 26

Put Your Money Where the Women Are

With Shilpa Yarlagadda, Trisha Goyal and Vee Kativhu

By HURS Team

First let’s talk numbers. Worldwide there are 274 million women involved in business startups. In the US, companies founded by women raised nearly $4.6 billion in 2021. On a positive note, that’s 83% higher than the total raised in 2020. But to put that into context, female founders only received 2% of all VC dollars in 2021, which is the lowest percentage since 2016. For women of color the percentages are worse. In 2020 women-led startups received 2.3% of venture funding, of which Black and LatinX women only received 0.64%.

In all honesty, we find it counterproductive to separate entrepreneurship into genders. A founder is just that, a founder. Terms like ‘Girlboss’ or lists with ‘The Best Female CEOs’, create an environment where we don’t even get the opportunity to compete with our male counterparts. Additionally the lack of diverse representation in the media when it comes to founders creates a one dimensional image of what a ‘female founder’ should represent. With a funding gap that’s still significantly bigger than it should be, we felt it necessary to shine a light on the topic of female entrepreneurship. But through the experiences of three women, over giving you our singular POV.