Women-founded AI startups are seeing a surge in venture capital funding, according to new data from Crunchbase. The report found that the number of women-led AI companies receiving VC funding has increased by nearly 50% since 2018.
This is great news for female entrepreneurs who have long been underrepresented in the tech industry and especially in artificial intelligence (AI). While there’s still much work to be done, this increase shows that more investors are recognizing the potential of women-led businesses and investing accordingly.
The report looked at over 1,000 AI startups founded between 2012 and 2020. Of those companies, only 8% had a woman founder or cofounder. However, when it came to VC funding for these startups, 18% went to those with at least one female founder or cofounder—a significant jump from 12% just two years ago.
In terms of total dollars invested into women-led AI companies during this period, $3 billion was raised across 627 deals—an impressive figure considering how few female founders were involved overall. This suggests that investors are becoming increasingly aware of the value that women bring to their businesses and are willing to back them financially as well as provide mentorship opportunities where possible.
It’s also worth noting that while most of these investments were made in North America (62%), Europe saw an uptick too with 20%. Asia Pacific accounted for 11%, Latin America 5%, Africa 2%, and Middle East & North Africa 0%. These figures show promise but also highlight the need for greater diversity within venture capital firms so they can better identify promising investment opportunities around the world regardless of gender or other factors such as race/ethnicity or geography.
The findings from this report demonstrate progress towards closing some gaps between male and female founders when it comes to access to venture capital funds; however there is still much work left ahead before we reach parity on all fronts – particularly when it comes down to representation among senior leadership roles within tech companies themselves which remain largely dominated by men despite recent efforts aimed at increasing diversity throughout Silicon Valley’s workforce landscape . It’s encouraging though that more investors appear open minded about backing talented teams regardless of gender – hopefully leading us closer towards achieving true equality across all industries soon enough!
TechCrunch
