venture capital funding It has never been a solid company for women or black and brown founders. Alongside Crunchbase, we have been tracking funding levels to pinpoint moments of progress and setbacks for marginalized entrepreneurs.
For example, Black founders had a strong year in 2021 with record funding amounts, but as the market cools and many DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) measures roll back. has decreased significantly. Women, on the other hand, have received stable funding over the past few years, hovering around 2%. But funding for mixed-gender teams has been steadily increasing, suggesting that female founders believe they can get bigger checks if they bring a male co-founder along.
Here are all the stories you need to know to stay informed about the highs and lows of funding for marginalized communities.
Read about funding Black founders
Funding for Black founders has steadily declined since 2021, suggesting investors have either lost interest or are focusing on supporting Black founders. This is a big deal, as the venture and startup ecosystem pledged to step up support for Black founders after the killing of George Floyd. But many of those promises appear to have fallen through the cracks. Last year, Crunchbase found that Black founders in the US raised 0.48% of all venture funding allocated last year. This is approximately $661 million of the $136 billion.
Since 2022, TechCrunch has been speaking with experts to learn what it takes to increase funding for Black founders. It turns out that this story has not changed in over 10 years. For years, Black people in the ecosystem have been demanding more opportunity, more money, more trust, less prejudice, and less pattern matching. Nothing seems to be happening yet at this point.
Black founders raised just 1% of all venture funding in 2022, which was down from 1.3% in 2021, which, believe it or not, was a record year.
Read about funding for female founders
Meanwhile, funding for women has remained consistent or stagnant, depending on whether you see the glass as half-full or half-empty. However, a bit of good news is that funding for mixed-gender teams is increasing. Only female solo founders seem to face more challenges when it comes to raising capital from investors.
There were some ups and downs in fundraising last year, but nothing dramatic enough to change the direction of the solo female founder.
Read about funding other marginalized groups
While Black founders and women dominate the conversation when it comes to inequitable funding, the reality is that other communities also face challenges when seeking investor funding. Latinx founders also face funding challenges, and the funding allocated to their group is often as low as that of Black communities.
Members of the LGBTQ community also face unique challenges when seeking funding from investors. To help collect data, Crunchbase announced last year that it would officially start tracking the amount of venture capital allocated to LGBTQ+ founders.
Read comments about funding
Experts, investors, and founders alike have many ideas about funding levels for marginalized groups. We've compiled some of the most pressing thoughts on the most controversial issues surrounding unequal financial access today.
Read the view from outside the US
But the United States is not the only country where women and people of color face challenges. Marginalized founders across Europe are sharing their stories about what it's like to raise money. Many of them also spoke of their dreams of entering the US market, despite the shortages faced by many minorities in the US.