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Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →In 2025, U.S. companies with female founders drew a record share of venture deal value, but the number of deals fell and a small number of AI megadeals accounted for a large portion of the money. The headline is a real gain in dollars—not proof that access widened for founders generally.
What female-founded companies raised in 2025
U.S. venture-backed companies with at least one female founder raised $73.6 billion in 2025, or 27.7% of total U.S. VC deal value, according to PitchBook’s March 5, 2026 announcement. PitchBook described the share as an all-time high. Its announcement also said deal count declined, so the record total does not mean more individual companies received funding. PitchBook’s 2025 findings concern U.S. VC-backed companies, not every business founded by a woman.
AI megadeals shaped the total
PitchBook attributed roughly two-thirds of investment dollars in female-founded startups to AI. Scale AI and Anthropic alone accounted for more than $30 billion, according to the announcement. When a few exceptionally large rounds drive an aggregate, the total can rise even as the number of funded companies falls. It therefore says more about the value of capital deployed than about how widely funding was distributed.
Which founders are counted
“Female-founded” is not one uniform category in these figures. PitchBook’s All In report defines female-founded companies as VC-backed companies with at least one female founder; that includes teams with founders of different genders. The Venture Monitor also reports a narrower category: companies with all-female founding teams. Those totals should not be substituted for one another.
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PitchBook’s categories are based on proprietary profiles, not a complete census. The company cautions that gender classifications for founders and investors may be incomplete or inaccurate. The 2024 All In report also excluded OpenAI deals from its activity series because its female founder had left before several large rounds. These scope limits matter when interpreting totals and comparing report vintages. PitchBook’s 2024 U.S. All In report describes the methodology and limitations.
How funding changed in 2023 and 2024
The PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor series shows more dollars but fewer deals for companies with at least one female founder in 2024 than in 2023. The separate all-female-team figure illustrates why the founder definition must stay visible.
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| Period and founder group | VC dollars | Deal count |
|---|---|---|
| 2023, at least one female founder | $40.8 billion | 3,621 |
| 2024, at least one female founder | $45.3 billion | 3,129 |
| 2024, all-female founding team | $3.7 billion | 665 |
Figures are U.S. VC activity reported in the Q4 2024 PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor. The all-female row is a narrower group, not a subset that can be used as the total for all companies with a female founder.
Why the record share needs context
PitchBook reported that companies with female founders captured 27.8% of U.S. VC deal value in 2023, up from 18.7% in 2022. Its March 2024 release said the share fell in 2024; the March 2026 announcement then called 2025’s 27.7% share an all-time high. The 2023 report and the 2025 announcement are different report vintages and periods. The similar percentages should not be treated as a direct contradiction or as evidence of a steady upward trend.
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A share of deal value can change because the cohort’s funding changes, the overall market changes, or a few large transactions alter the total. It is not a measure of the proportion of founders who obtained funding, nor does it establish equal access. Deal count, stage, and concentration are essential alongside dollars.
Where the picture is positive—and where it remains uneven
More late-stage activity and improved outcomes in 2024
PitchBook’s 2024 All In report found that female-founded companies closed more venture-growth rounds in 2024 than in 2023. It also reported more female-founded companies becoming unicorns and an increase in exits year over year. These are meaningful signs of activity and company outcomes, but they do not show that the funding path was equally accessible at every stage.
Later-stage valuations lagged
The same report said valuations for female-founded companies lagged the broader U.S. market more noticeably in later stages. More growth rounds can coexist with weaker relative valuations: round counts measure financing events, while valuation comparisons measure the price investors assign to companies. Neither result alone describes every business or founder.
Women remained underrepresented among check-writers
PitchBook’s 2024 report said women held under 20% of U.S. venture-firm check-writing decision-maker roles in 2023. That is a relevant access context because these roles can influence investment decisions, but the statistic does not establish how any particular investor evaluated a pitch or explain the overall funding pattern by itself.
What studies say about investor evaluation
Research offers possible insight into evaluation, but it does not establish a single cause for the aggregate funding gap or describe every investor’s behavior.
- A 2021 preprint analyzing more than 48,000 Crunchbase companies found CEO gender was a primary predictor in its model of whether a startup reached an equity round. This is an observational model result, not proof that gender alone caused a funding outcome. Read the preprint.
- Ye Zhang’s 2020 field-experiment paper reported context-dependent responses: in the paper’s attractive-startup scenarios, it found implicit discrimination against female and Asian founders; in struggling-startup scenarios, it found preference for those founders. These findings apply to the experiment’s setup and should not be generalized to all pitches or investors. Read the paper.
Funding totals document observed activity; they do not identify which mechanism produced a particular result. The available figures also do not establish that female-founded companies universally outperform male-founded companies.
What to track when judging whether access is improving
A useful assessment looks beyond headline dollars and compares the same geography, period, and founder definition. In future reports, examine:
Quick Recap
- Deal count as well as dollars: more funding can be concentrated in fewer companies.
- Stage distribution: track pre-seed and seed, early-stage, late-stage, and venture-growth activity separately.
- Funding outside AI megadeals: concentration can obscure how much capital reaches companies across sectors and sizes.
- Founder-group definitions and data coverage: distinguish at least one female founder from all-female teams and account for classification limits.
- Investor representation: follow who holds roles with authority to write checks, while avoiding assumptions that representation alone explains funding outcomes.
- Outcomes alongside financing: compare valuations, unicorn formation, and exits, with the period and stage clearly stated.
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