The state of women in venture capital
The numbers that define the opportunity — on both sides of the table. Women are gaining ground fastest as investors, even as founder funding stays stuck.
of check-writers at US VC firms are women
Decision-makers with capital authority.
of VC limited partners are now women
Up 1.6× from 13% in 2021.
of GPs in Europe are women
They manage roughly 9% of total AUM.
of US VC funding goes to all-women founding teams
The founder-side gap that persists.
average female-LP backing of all-women funds
1.4× more than mixed-gender funds.
average check size from women LPs
vs. ~$180k for men — smaller, and often first-time.
Capital is shifting on the investor side first
The headline number everyone quotes — that all-women founding teams receive just1–2% of venture funding — has barely moved in a decade. But it hides a more hopeful story happening one layer up the capital stack: who controls the money.
The share of venture limited partners who are women rose from 13% in 2021 to about 21% in 2025 — a 1.6× increase, growing a few points every year. LPs are the investors who fund the funds; as more women write those cheques, more capital reaches women-led funds, which in turn back more women founders. All-women funds already draw1.4× more female-LP backing than mixed-gender teams.
Why the check-writer number matters most
Only about 17–18% of the people who can say “yes” to a deal at US venture firms are women, and in Europe women are roughly 16% of GPs managing just 9% of assets. That gap between headcount and assets is the real bottleneck — and the reason a growing number of women are choosing to raise their own funds or invest directly as angels rather than wait for a seat at an existing firm.
The fastest route to changing who gets funded is changing who does the funding.
The first-cheque pattern
Women LPs write a smaller average cheque (~$140k vs. ~$180k) and are more likely to be investing for the first time. That is not a weakness — it is a signal of a large, early-stage cohort that needs exactly what this site is built around: clear directories, honest data, and a practical path to a first investment.
Sources
- New Private Markets — Women LPs step up to narrow the VC funding gap for female GPs
- VC Lab — Women in Venture Capital: Progress and Growth
- PitchBook — US VC female founders dashboard
- Venture Capital Journal — An LP base that women-led VCs can't afford to ignore
Figures reflect the most recent public reporting as of 2026. We refresh this page as new data lands.