2022 Poised to be a Record Year for Venture Capital Investments in Female Founders

Venture Capital had a record-breaking year in 2021 fueled by US VC backed companies who raised double the amount of 2020 and the highest deal activity level in history. With nearly $800 billion in exits alone in 2021, this was a momentous year for Venture Capital firms, investors, and founders. Taking a deeper dive into 2021, there was an increase in deal activity for companies with at least one female founder as well as overall deal activity for companies with all female founders. An exciting and record-breaking year for VC and female founders.

The US VC deal activity for companies with at least one female founder has been increasing throughout the past decade, but in 2021 we saw the highest deal activity and the highest deal value with the value almost 2x of 2020. One of the major reasons for this is because female founders have been steadily increasing year over year and we have seen more female founders making key market decisions in 2021 than we have seen in the past decade. With a higher deal volume count in the beginning half of 2021, VC firms were regaining footing and confidence to deploy capital after a cautionary period due to the pandemic and hoping to reap the benefits of high market prices later in the year.

We also looked into all female founded businesses to see how those numbers matched with the 2021 companies with at least one female founder. With the significant spike in deal count in 2021 for female founded businesses, we anticipate and hope the record-breaking year for 2021 is only the start for the booming US VC deal activity and female founded businesses activity will continue to increase as a percentage of the total deal activity in 2022 and beyond.

By:  Ryan Peterson, Treya Partners Business Development Manager