While venture capital activity has shown declines from all-time highs in 2021, female founders continue to carve out a bigger slice of the market, especially in Chicago.
That’s according to Pitchbook data, which looked at VC-backed “female-founded companies” with at least one female founder.
The data showed that though female-founded companies in the U.S. experienced some lulls in deal activity as the VC market declined in 2022, unlike previous slowdowns, they were not disproportionately hurt by the decline.
In fact, female-founded companies in Chicago represented 14% of total deal value in 2022, up from 10.5% in 2021.
Nationwide, female-founded companies represent 25.5% of total VC deal count, though activity among these companies has proven to be relatively stable, according to PitchBook.
After a record-setting 2021, female-founded companies across the country ended up closing $7 billion in deals with angel investor participation through November, according to PitchBook.
Still, female founders have not been immune to some of the regulatory and financial headwinds that plagued VC fundraising in 2021. VC exit activity for female-founded companies reached $10.9 billion across 172 exits through November, which is significantly lower than the $73.3 billion closed in 2021 and the $31.4 billion closed in 2020.
Solo female founders have tended to fare even worse. Solo female founders raised 2% of all VC capital through the first 11 months of 2022 — a six-year low. Female co-founders fared better, however, with 15.4% of capital, the highest share since 2017.
