Women Investors Who Lead Startups To Success
If you’ve been following tech media lately, you may have read about women being underrepresented among investment partners at the venture firms a lot. Yet, I’m here to posit that women VCs are on the rise. Based on the observation of Women.vc, there isn’t only an increased interest in female investors, there’s a demand for them. In this past year alone we’ve seen multi-billion dollar exits of women funded companies, an influx in female investors at corporate venture funds, and the first ever hired female investment partner by Sequoia Capital.
This can be verified by the fact that most progressive limited partners have started recognizing successful fund managers among women investors and are eager to put their dollars into women led VC funds. They’ve observed that women VCs operate through different networks and patterns of investing; methods unfound among their white male VC counterparts. LP’s are fascinated by this immerging phenomenon and are standing in line looking for the most successful women VCs to benefit from their differences.
“Femtech” is the all new booming sector that has startups actively mining for female investors. It’s a recent term coined by an emerging female founder to describe the hot new market for female-focused products and services, which form a multi billion-dollar market that is a force to be reckoned with. Female investors are big in this space due to their intuitive understanding of said products and services from many different standpoints, whether it’s design, engineering or craftsmanship. Genders aside, all investors recognize the potential for this emerging market and they’re attempting to ride its coattails. However, women are extra likely to invest in “Femtech” industries, since most of the startups in this sector are founded by female entrepreneurs, and investors are known for investing in people they can relate to. Female venture capitalists are on the ascent also because female entrepreneurship is on the rise. There’s a definite correlation between the two and it’s altering the playing field for women VCs.
After speaking with LPs who requested our expert input on women led VC funds, we decided to uncover for the public as well the most noticeable female VCs who not only fund female-focused and founded startups, but also contribute a lot to their success. To keep things fair, we compiled a list of 50 female-founded “startups to watch” according to TechCrunch, Business Insider and CB Insights. Then, we scanned through all their investors and singled out venture firms with female investment partners.
The Top 5 venture firms most integral to supporting these thriving female-founded startups are:
- BBG Ventures of Susan Lyne and Nisha Dua;
- Forerunner with Kirsten Green and Eurie Kim;
- Aspect Ventures of Jennifer Fonstad and Theresia Gouw;
- Female Founders Fund of Anu Duggal and Sutian Dong, and
- Structure Capital with Jillian Manus.
Some other avant-garde venture firms we found that actively fund female entrepreneurs include: DBL Partners of Nancy Pfund and Cynthia Ringo, WME Ventures of Beth Ferreira, and of course, Cowboy Ventures of Aileen Lee.
Finally, it would be a slight travesty if we failed to make honorable mention of a few other venture firms that have supported many female-founded and female-focused startups. They are:
Greycroft Partners with Dana Settle and Ellie Wheeler among Partners, Canaan Partners with Laura Chau and Maha Ibrahim, Upfront Ventures with Kara Nortman, Kapor Capital founded by Freada Kapor Klein and Converge Venture Partners of Maia Heymann.
With all is said and done, our findings are consistent with TechCrunch. Venture firms with a high number of female-founded startups in their portfolio representing a significant share in the firm’s total capital invested, tend to share a common attribute: they are founded by a woman, or the partnerships hold a high percentage of female partners.
On a side note, it would be an absolute disservice to ignore the many male venture capitalists who are very supportive of female entrepreneurs. Perhaps you already created a priority list of female investors for your female-founded and focused startup, but keep yours options open and consider reaching out to male investment partners as well. Consider the following stat: a full 20% of the female founded “startups to watch” that we examined, were in fact funded exclusively by men. Among others, we saw Great Oaks Venture Capital, Slow Ventures, and Baseline Ventures, all with male-only teams to boot.
Here’s the bottom line. We’ve demonstrated that female investors are on the rise in femtech and elsewhere. Limited Partners feel confident about them, so entrepreneurs should do too. We all know that having Sequoia Capital or Andreessen Horowitz among investors increases startups’ chances for a successful exit. Now, you can also find the right women investors who will lead your venture to success.
