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The proportion of female co-founded companies has doubled since 2009 which stood at 10 percent.

In our very , published in early 2015 after we added gender to Crunchbase, we noted: “In 2009, 9.5% startups had at least one woman founder, but by 2014 that rate had almost doubled to 18%. At the same time, the absolute number of companies (along with the total number of startups) with a female founder more than quadrupled from 117 in 2009 to 555 in 2014.”

Back in 2009 there were far fewer startups, and a lot less funding.

In the five years since 2014, close to 10,000 startups with at least one female founder have raised funding. This signals a huge shift in our industry and our reporting on founders reflects that.

Along with the changed funding environment, many notable female-founded venture firms have been set up in the last 10 years, including many of which have contributed to our coverage on this issue.

The list includes , ,�� , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , the more the recently founded and among many more firms.

The year of 2019 broke records with 21 new female-founded unicorns reported by Crunchbase. In 2018 we reported on 15 new unicorns, with previous years all in the single digits.

The total number of newly funded startups with a female founder is one indicator of change, along with advancement of women in venture. How female founders fare when it comes to raising venture funding is another measure we explore.

Invested Dollars In Female-Founded Companies

In 2019, $26.7 billion was invested into companies with at least one female co-founder; just over $6 billion in female only; and $20.6 billion in female/male co-founded companies.

This is the second-largest funding amount invested in female founders in a single year. There was $44.8 billion invested in 2018, including one of  the single largest rounds to a female-founded firm with the deal.

Proportion Of Dollars Down YoY

Let’s look at these dollars in the context of overall investments in male- versus female-founded companies. The year 2019 closed with 3 percent going to female-founded and 10 percent to male/female co-founded companies making up 13 percent of all seed, venture and corporate venture dollars. Since 2016 the proportion to female only and male/female co-founded has not shifted from 13 percent overall — barring 2018 with Ant Financial, which single-handedly increased the proportion to female only founded.

Deal Counts Flat YoY

The proportion of deals in 2019 is slightly higher when compared with dollar volume. Female-only was at 6 percent and female/male co-founded companies was 13 percent, making up 19 percent of all funding rounds. Since 2016 deal count has gone up by 2 percent, and is flat year over year.

2019 By Funding Stage

Many founders seek to understand the numbers we just looked at through each funding stage. We break it down here for 2019 rounds.

Overall trends are that seed tends to be higher in count and amount, and at each stage moving through Series A, B and C+ rounds. Counts tend to be higher than amounts–an indicator that female founders raise less than their male counterparts. And female only founders raise less of a proportion of funding than male/female co-founded teams.

With seed as the first step in a startup  journey, these percentages are indicators for trends in future years for early- and late-stage rounds.

Investor Community Speaks

We spoke with investors who are seeking to impact these numbers and understand the challenges women face.

“When you’re a founder, the terms that are set are ultimately driven by your ability to negotiate,” said , founding member of .

She explained further:

“Certain founders may only get one term sheet, so that’s the deal they have to accept because they don’t have as much negotiation leverage. But other founders might go to Sand Hill Road and get six term sheets in a week; they’re going to drive the negotiation, they’re going to have lower dilution and higher valuations and they’re going to set the terms. That’s something we talked about a lot in our group. Do women have as many options when they go out raising? Are they able to command and demand that same sort of excitement about the companies that they’re building where they’re able to drive the negotiation process and set those terms?”

, co-founder of , who setup a firm specifically to invest in consumer tech startups with a female founder, is familiar with the issues female founders face.

As she explained:

“I think the issue is pretty simple. This is an industry that has always run on relationship networks. Someone you know and respect makes a warm introduction to a great founder and you agree to hear their pitch. But if women are not part of your network, you’re just at a big disadvantage — you’re going to miss a lot of great companies. I think investors are finally starting to wake up to this. More and more VC firms are adding a female partner  — partly because there’s been a lot of noise about it, but mostly out of self interest. Which by the way, I wholeheartedly support. And I think with initiatives like , you’re going to see more of that.”

Methodology: Notes On The Data

For this quarterly report, our analysis is based on announced funding to companies with founders associated. This is in contrast to our overall venture capital report where we use projected data in order to correct for data lags for the most recent quarter. Over time we fully expect more founders to be added to Crunchbase, as well as a reporting lag on funding which will be greater for the most recent year. For this report we include private company fundings from seed through to late-stage venture. We exclude private equity rounds.

Crunchbase’s dataset is constantly expanding, but there are gaps. A company may not have founders listed on its Crunchbase profile. Or Crunchbase might not have a gender listed for founders that are attached to the person’s Crunchbase profile. (Note: In addition to “male” and “female,” Crunchbase has over two dozen other gender tags.) Based on an analysis of current data for this report, more than 80 percent of dollars raised in the last five years are associated with companies that have founders.

Crunchbase, like all databases of private-market transactions, has a documented pattern of reporting delays. It can sometimes take weeks to months for some rounds to be announced publicly and subsequently get added to Crunchbase. This is especially the case for seed and early-stage deals, which are often raised by companies before the company launches a product, or otherwise gets much outside media coverage which surfaces information about the company’s funding history. As data is added to Crunchbase over time, some of the numbers in this report may shift slightly.

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According to Crunchbase data, over $122 billion has been invested in European startups, across 48 countries, in the last five years.

And 2019 is a record year for European startups with companies raising over $36 billion–a five-year high, and over $7 billion more than European startups raised the previous year. Year-over-year growth tracks at 25 percent. Since 2015, the amount of money raised by European startups has more than doubled.

Strong European growth in 2019 contrasts with our reporting on overall global venture, which is down year over year (largely based on China late-stage fundings slowing down in 2019). For the U.S. and Canada, invested dollars are projected to grow at a small percentage. It is worth noting that 2018 was a peak for global venture funding over the last 10 years and grew 47 percent year over year from 2017 to 2018.

Both our global and North American reports use projected data in order to overcome reporting delays. With our European report we look at reported–not projected–data, which means that 2019 numbers will increase over time, relative to previous years. We also excluded private equity and corporate rounds for this report.

Northern Europe, which Crunchbase News defines as including the United Kingdom, Nordic countries, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, pulled in the majority of that amount–$18.63 billion to be exact. The U.K. can take credit for that, as it led the region in deal and dollar volume for the past year. Sweden, also part of Northern Europe, is the fourth-largest country for European funding rounds in 2019.

Western Europe raised $14.9 billion in 2019. Western Europe includes Germany, France and Switzerland–three countries in the top six by funding counts and amounts.

Eastern and Southern Europe, which includes Spain (in the top six), Italy and Poland raised $2.5 billion in funding in 2019.

Year-over-year deal counts could be perceived to be down. However, early-stage deal counts–Series A and B–are on par at 1,000 rounds for both 2018 and 2019, with later-stage venture deal counts up  by 16 percent year over year. With much of the difference in funding round counts attributed to the seed stage, where we see the most reporting delays, we fully expect these numbers to go up during 2020. Reporting delays for funding amounts are less pronounced in Crunchbase data.

In terms of deal volume, the United Kingdom took first place by far, with 1,425 deals totaling $14.31 billion in 2019, representing 40 percent of European funding in 2019. Germany was the runner-up, with 444 deals adding up to $6.65 billion (18 percent) last year. France wasn’t far behind Germany, with 425 deals totaling $4.39 billion (12 percent) in 2019.

The largest venture funding round for 2019 was London’s , which raised $1.25 billion in March in a round led by Softbank–also the only VC round for a European company that was over $1 billion, according to Crunchbase. London’s took second place with its $575 million , and Germany’s took third place with its €500 million (approximately $555 million) .

Investors In European Startups

Let’s take a look at the firms that are most active in European startups at each stage–seed, early- and late-stage venture.

The investors at the seed stage in European startups represent a mix of pre-seed/accelerator funds typically investing below $100,000 along with seed funds investing around $500,000 to $3 million.

The leading pre-seed stage investors include , a Hungarian state-owned venture fund and from Switzerland, which provide pre-seed funding to entrepreneurs from Swiss Universities. and are global accelerators with Europe-based accelerator programs. is a U.K.-based business angels club.

Germany-based , in the U.K., and in France are all among the most active seed-stage investment funds leading the larger seed rounds.

Active early stage investors (Series A and B rounds) in 2019 include , and , which are all based in France. The next set of investors,, , and are all U.K.-headquartered firms. is in Sweden and is in Austria. , and are all based in Germany.

When viewed by investors leading Series A and B rounds, a few new venture investors rise to the top 12 namely (U.K.) , (U.S.) and (France).

The most active investors in late-stage rounds include European and global players. Late-stage rounds are comprised of Series C+ rounds, as well as venture rounds above $15 million. Firms not previously mentioned include , a U.S.-based venture firm with a well-established London office celebrating 20 years this year.

Firms in this list that lead at late stage are , an investment banking firm, and which invests in growth-stage startups. Both are headquartered in New York. a PE and venture firm based out of Paris also leads late-stage rounds.

“An important development we saw this year is that the outside world now also shares our homegrown belief in European tech,” said , a partner and head of research at Atomico. “Twenty-one percent of all rounds in Europe this year involved participation from a U.S. or Asian investor. That’s doubled since five years ago. This funding is especially important in later-stage funding deals.”

“There is certainly more availability of capital in Europe now,” said a partner at Accel in London commenting on what has changed in the European funding ecosystem. “Ten years ago there was this stereotype that European founders are not ambitious enough. This is no longer the conversation.”

According to Wehmeier and reflected in this report “We’re seeing the successes of the first generation of European tech startups become a platform for even greater success. This matters because you need three things to have a tech ecosystem: talent, capital and belief. The first generation of successes has birthed talent and is attracting more and more capital from Europe-specific funds. But continued successes have also made people believe in the potential of this ecosystem. Belief is what helps people with great ideas today become the founders of tomorrow. It’s what makes people give up the security of a well-paid corporate job for the unpredictability of startup life. And it shapes capital allocation and investment.”

The increase in funding in 2019 to European startups is visible at all stages. And with many firms active in venture, we see a robust ecosystem developing across Europe.

Methodology

For the regional divisions, we relied on the United Nations Geoscheme for Europe, which is produced by the United Nations Statistics Division. Information about the Geoscheme can be found or on the

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. Crunchbase converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events as reported. Even if those events were added to Crunchbase long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

Analysis is based on data in Crunchbase as of Jan. 7, 2020.

Glossary of Funding Terms

• • Seed/Angel include financings that are classified as a seed or angel, including accelerator fundings and equity crowdfunding below $5 million.
  • Early-stage venture includes financings that are classified as a Series A or B, venture rounds without a designated series that are below $15 million and equity crowdfunding above $5 million unless otherwise noted.
  • Late stage venture includes financings that are classified as a Series C+ and venture rounds greater than $15 million.
  • Note: Fundings denoted by Crunchbase as corporate rounds or private equity are not included in this report. In some instances, this will impact totals to a significant degree.

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