2023 State of Women Who #BuildInSE
Happy Women’s History Month! To celebrate, we thought it would be a great time to review and update our ongoing research on female founders and funders across the Southeast. We define the Southeast as: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.
According to the US Census, the Southeast is home to at least 40 million women and some of the fastest growing states and cities in the country. We estimate that there are at least 500 women building across the Southeast.
The Southeast is continuing to grow as a tech hub. In 2022, the region saw more than $6 billion VC dollars invested in 2022, which was a 20% increase from $5 billion the previous year. Even during a down year for VC, the Southeast’s tech sector continued to grow and attract funding. Large metros in the Southeast like Atlanta, Miami, and Raleigh-Durham are becoming magnets for tech jobs and tech workers. Other states like Tennessee, Georgia, Kentucky, and the Carolinas are positioning themselves to grow industries of the future by attracting investments in sectors like clean energy and EV manufacturing. The Southeast is home to some of the nation’s best colleges and universities whose enrollment has grown in recent years. The future for these 40 million women, be they a CEO or a side-hustler, is bright all across the Southeast.
These women are founders like:
Tara Fung Co-Founder and CEO of Co-Create, a Nashville-based startup that enables brands to build gamified, self-owned reward experiences that supercharge their community. She recently raised $25M from Andreessen Horowitz.
Sandeep Ahuja Co-Founder and CEO of Cove.Tool, an Atlanta-based cloud-based software platform breaks down barriers in the design and construction cycle. She recently raised $30M from Coatue.
Sevetri M Wilson Founder and CEO of Resilia, a New Orleans-based SaaS technology platform that helps nonprofit organizations increase capacity, and enables funders to scale impact and provide on-demand technical assistance to their partners. She recently raised $35M from Panoramic Ventures and Framework Venture Partners. This is the largest raise ever for a solo Black female-founded tech company, and also marks the largest VC raise of a female founder in the state of Louisiana.
Ginger Krieg Dosier founder and CEO of Biomason, a company that uses microorganisms to grow sustainable structural cement materials for the construction industry. She recently raised $65M from 2150.
Are you a female founder? We welcome all female founders building tech-enabled, high-growth startups to join our free Build In SE Female Founder Directory.
**To join, complete our quick, <2-minute form**
Launched in early 2020, the Build In SE Female Founder Directory is the first of its kind to take a regional point of view on collecting data behind women-led startups and access to capital across the southeastern states.
Why enroll? Help us gather the most accurate and comprehensive view of female founders in this region to help drive awareness, resources, and inform programmatic offerings. 💪
Funders Like:
According to our Southeast Capital Landscape, there are now over 300 VC firms in the Southeast. While this growth is impressive, women only represent the only 12% of VC decision-makers according to Forbes. Here are some women across the Southeast leading the way to change these numbers.
Kathryn O’Day, Partner, Atlanta Ventures
Kelly Reeser, Managing Director, TechFarms Capital
Lindsey White Benefield, Investment Director, Innovate Mississippi
Katherine Boyle, Partner, Andreessen Horowitz
Kim Seals, General Partner, The Jump Fund
- *See our Southeast women investor database here!**
Women Investors in the Southeast (WISE)
There are over 90 active women institutional VCs in the Southeast, not to mention hundreds of active angel investors. One of our initiatives to build community and deal flow for women VCs is called WISE: Women Investors in the Southeast. Check out this piece on our launch.
Geographically speaking, the women sitting on the other side of the table are largely concentrated in the urban centers of Atlanta and Miami, with honorable mentions to growing metros such as Nashville, Raleigh-Durham, & Chattanooga.
Build In SE’s mission is to increase the number of startup success stories in the Southeast by leveraging a cross-regional, collaborative network. We’re building regional intelligence through our team of local Ecosystem Curators, Alliance partners, and investor communities, all in support of founders as they launch and scale their startups. Build In SE is a certified Benefit Corporation headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee.
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