In 2025, US startups with at least one female founder received a record 27.7% of venture capital deal value, according to PitchBook’s 2025 US All In report, released March 2026, but two AI companies accounted for about 40% of those dollars. All-female teams received just 1.9% of US venture dollars in 2024, according to PitchBook’s 2024 report; its 2025 report shows their capital fell another 22% while all-male teams raised 21% more. Women also represented only 12.8% of US inventors on granted patents in 2019, according to the USPTO’s 2020 update.
The key numbers
Venture capital (VC) is investment in companies in exchange for ownership. The table distinguishes dollars invested, transactions completed and patent participation. PitchBook sources refer to its US All In reports; USPTO refers to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
| Measure | Figure | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| US VC value: at least one female founder | $73.6 billion; record 27.7% share | 2025 | PitchBook 2025 report, March 2026 |
| Value from two AI companies | More than $30 billion; about 40% of female-founded dollars | 2025 | PitchBook 2025 report |
| Female-founded value excluding those companies | $42.8 billion; below 2021 and 2022; roughly 13% above 2024 | 2025 | PitchBook 2025 report |
| AI share of female-founded VC dollars | About two-thirds | 2025 | PitchBook 2025 report |
| Female-founded deal count | Fourth consecutive annual decline; lowest since 2018 | 2025 | PitchBook 2025 report |
| All-female capital change versus prior year | Down 22% | 2025 | PitchBook 2025 report |
| All-male capital change versus prior year | Up 21% | 2025 | PitchBook 2025 report |
| US VC value: at least one female founder | 19.9% | 2024 | PitchBook 2024 report; December 31, 2024 data |
| US VC deal count: at least one female founder | 25.1% | 2024 | PitchBook 2024 report; December 31, 2024 data |
| US VC value: all-female teams | 1.9%; $3.7 billion | 2024 | PitchBook 2024 report; December 31, 2024 data |
| US VC deal count: all-female teams | 6.5%; 816 deals | 2024 | PitchBook 2024 report; December 31, 2024 data |
| Women’s share of US inventors on granted patents | 12.1% | 2016 | USPTO, Progress and Potential, 2020 update |
| Women’s share of US inventors on granted patents | 12.8% | 2019 | USPTO, Progress and Potential, 2020 update |
| Patents with at least one woman inventor | 20.7% | 2016 | USPTO, Progress and Potential, 2020 update |
| Patents with at least one woman inventor | 21.9% | 2019 | USPTO, Progress and Potential, 2020 update |
How to read these numbers
Female-founded is not the same as all-female
PitchBook’s female-founded category includes companies with at least one female founder, including mixed-gender teams. All-female means every founder is female. A larger share for the broader category does not establish that all-female teams gained access to capital.
Dollars and deals tell different stories
Deal value measures capital invested; deal count measures funding transactions. A few exceptionally large rounds can move dollar totals sharply. Deal counts and medians—the middle observations in a distribution—help assess how broadly funding reaches founders.
PitchBook’s 2025 report attributes about 40% of female-founded dollars to two AI companies, while female-founded deal count declined. Its finding that AI absorbed about two-thirds of those dollars also shows why an aggregate share may poorly describe conditions in another sector.
Figures get revised
PitchBook updates historical figures as additional deals are reported. Different editions can therefore show slightly different shares for the same year. Cite both the measurement year and report edition, and compare figures drawn from consistent definitions.
Correlation is not cause
These data document differences; they do not isolate why those differences exist. Sector mix, such as AI versus consumer technology or biotechnology, can move the shares. Aggregate funding figures alone cannot establish how a particular investor evaluated a particular founder.
What research says about the pitch room
Kanze, Huang, Conley and Higgins’s 2018 study in the Academy of Management Journal (volume 61, issue 2) examined investor question-and-answer sessions at TechCrunch Disrupt New York City, a startup pitch competition, from 2010 to 2016. Investors tended to ask men promotion-focused questions about gains, growth and upside, and women prevention-focused questions about losses, risk and safety.
Entrepreneurs receiving more prevention questions raised less funding. Entrepreneurs who answered prevention questions with promotion-focused responses raised more. These findings connect question framing with funding outcomes in the studied setting; they do not promise that a particular response will secure investment.
Prepare to answer the risk directly, then connect the answer to a supported growth opportunity. For example, explain how a planned validation step addresses uncertainty and supports expansion. The pitch deck and investor question guide can help organize that evidence.
Why patent data matters for deep-tech founders
Deep-tech companies build products around scientific or engineering advances. Patents are often the assets licensed into these companies, so lower participation by women among inventors can narrow the pipeline of women-led spinouts, the companies formed to commercialize university or lab research. The USPTO figures measure inventorship, however, rather than company formation or leadership.
The USPTO’s 2020 update shows increases in both women’s share of inventors and patents including a woman inventor between 2016 and 2019. Those measures have different denominators: people versus patents. Neither should be presented as women’s share of patent ownership.
Read patent basics for startup founders alongside the explanation of technology transfer and invention ownership before assessing a research asset. Confirm patent questions with a registered patent practitioner and licensing contracts with a qualified attorney.
Using the data without being defined by it
- Line up non-dilutive money, which does not cost ownership, before or alongside equity. SBIR and STTR research funding is a federal program built specifically for small companies doing R&D.
- Examine investors’ actual portfolios before pitching. Look for relevant technologies, development stages and business models, alongside evidence of investment in women-founded companies.
- Prepare responses to risk questions. State the uncertainty, the evidence available and the next validation step, then explain the opportunity that progress supports.
- Track your own evidence: customer interviews, pilots—limited real-world trials—and revenue. Distinguish completed results from planned work.
- Use aggregate data in discussions with policymakers, programs and boards about access and evaluation practices. Treat it as context for institutional decisions, rather than a forecast of your outcome.
Check the latest PitchBook report and USPTO releases, since the numbers are updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does female-founded include mixed-gender founding teams?
Yes, PitchBook includes teams with a female founder alongside founders of other genders. Its all-female category is narrower. Check which category a headline uses before interpreting it.
Does record funding mean women founders have equal access?
A record dollar total cannot establish equal access. Large transactions can increase the total while fewer funding transactions occur. The distribution of capital matters alongside its overall volume.
Can pitch preparation address investor bias?
Preparation can help a founder respond clearly when questions emphasize downside. The cited research supports connecting those answers to growth opportunities. It does not establish that founders can eliminate bias through presentation choices.
Does the women inventor rate measure women-owned startups?
No, it describes women’s representation among US inventors on granted patents. It does not identify who owns a startup or controls its technology. Keep inventor participation separate from ownership and leadership.