Forbes, November 2014 – If you don’t know the story of women and venture capital, you should. Here’s what the data says…
Of the 6,793 companies funded by VCs between 2011 and 2013, only 2.7% of those companies had a woman at the helm as CEO – according to the recent Babson College study titled “Women Entrepreneurs and Bridging the Gap in Venture Capital” (PDF).
Back in 1999, at the time of a prior study, fewer than 5% of all ventures receiving investment capital had women on their management team. But between 2011 and 2013 that figure rose to over 15%. While that increase seems like a positive trend, it still means that over the last few years 85% of all businesses funded by VCs had no women at all on the management team.
Then there’s also the gender gap among the leadership of venture capital funds themselves. A 2011 survey by the National Venture Capital Association, showed that 89% of all VC investors were men, and only 11% were women.
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