Written by Jazira Bayan on March 29, 2022
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According to the recent Bloomberg study in 2021, female founders secured only 2% of venture capital in the U.S., which is the smallest capital share since 2016.
Venture capital, like most of the entire investment world, remains a predominantly male field. On top of that, women often have to deal with stereotypes; they are not often given opportunities to take on leadership roles in the tech industry, and the stigma continues to persist that women tend to be less rational in investment decisions than men.
The industry is definitely changing, and there is more and more attention being paid to uphold inclusivity and diversity, and greater opportunities for women founders through various initiatives, industry conferences, and foundations. We are moving in the right direction, and over time, the hope is that a gender balance can be established in the venture capital environment — at least we are systematically moving towards this.
Equal gender representation in the tech industry helps to nourish the ecosystem with diverse talents. We now have a greater understanding of the importance of diverse teams during the pandemic, given that both men and women now have to combine their careers with the organization of everyday life with their families. Studies show that women are thriving much more than their male counterparts, as women already have had more experience in balancing work and home life before the pandemic, and their multitasking skills and multifunctional abilities allow them to be more productive under work-from-home conditions.
The Kauffman Foundation also found that female-led private tech companies have displayed greater efficiency, with VC-backed revenues 12% higher than male-led startups and 35% higher ROI. These numbers might be surprising to some in the community, and while the numbers speak for themselves, the truth remains that female founders still need more funding.
More work needs to be done in this space, and as a start, we have compiled a list of VC funds that are known proponents of backing female founders. This list is by no means exhaustive and we hope it continues to grow!
1. Her Capital
Website: https://www.hercapital.org/
Notes: Her Capital is a seed fund in Singapore investing in female-founded, scalable businesses across Southeast Asia.
Focus: Women-led companies focusing on Consumer Tech, Social Impact, and General Tech (HRtech, Legaltech, Fintech, Edtech)
Stage: Pre-seed to Series A
Average Check Size: $25K (Pre-seed) — $2M (Series A)
Investment Location: Southeast Asia
2. Teja Ventures
Website: https://www.tejaventures.com
Notes: Gender lens VC fund for emerging Asia, focusing on early-stage technology companies for the She Economy.
Focus: Women-led companies focusing on consumption, services, content, and fintech
Stage: Seed — pre-series A
Average Check Size: not specified
Investment Location: SEA with focus on India and China
3. Cocoon Capital
Website: https://cocooncap.com
Notes: Launched Female Founders Mentoring Hours (FFMH) in Southeast Asia. which enables female entrepreneurs to meet investors for 1–1 mentoring sessions.
Focus: B2B, Deeptech
Stage: Seed to Series A
Average Check Size: $300k to $750k
Investment Location: South-East Asia (Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Myanmar, Malaysia)
4. SoGal Ventures
Website: https://www.sogalventures.com/
Notes: Women-led millennial venture capital firm investing in early-stage startups in the US and Asia with diverse founding teams.
Focus: Consumer, digital health, future of work
Stage: Pre-Seed — Series A
Average Check Size: $250k to $3M
Investment Location: US, Canada, Asia
5. Patamar Capital
Website: https://patamar.com
Notes: Patamar’s gender lens investing efforts includes managing one of the first gender lens investing funds in Southeast Asia, the Investing in Women Fund.
Focus: Financial services, SME Digitalization, Education, Healthcare, Agriculture.
Stage: Series A, Series B
Average Check Size: not specified
Investment Location: South and Southeast Asia
6. Beacon Fund
Website: https://beaconfund.com
Notes: Beacon is a long-term commitment to changing finance to work better for women-owned businesses
Focus: women-owned businesses and businesses that primarily and intentionally serve women and girls
Stage: Early to Growth stages
Average Check Size: not specified
Investment Location: SEA
7. Vertex Ventures
Website: https://www.vertexventures.com/
Notes: Over the past year, Vertex IL invested in 4 companies with female founders and seeking more startups this year.
Focus: Technology startups
Stage: Seed — Series A
Average Check Size: not specified
Investment Location: China, Israel, SEA & India, and US
8. 500 Startups
Website: https://sea.500.co/
Notes: The fund is run by the youngest female partners in SEA.
Focus: BigData, Consumer, Enterprise, Software as Service
Stage: Seed
Average Check Size: $50k to $10M
Investment Location: Global
9. 11.2 Capital
Website: www.112capital.com
Notes: Founded by a female venture capitalist.
Focus: AI, AR, robotics, space, and data-driven health technologies
Stage: early-stages, seed
Average Check Size: not specified
Investment Location: US, Global
10. Chloe Capital
Website: https://chloecapital.com/
Notes: Seed-stage venture capital firm investing in women-led innovation companies, advancing entrepreneurship, and closing the gender gap.
Focus: Enterprise SaaS / Marketplaces across Climate, Education, Health, Finance, Home
Stage: Seed
Average Check Size: $100K
Investment Location: Global
11. Astia
Website: https://www.astia.org/
Notes: Astia has launched a $100m venture fund investing globally in high-growth companies that have at least one woman in an executive position.
Focus: All Sectors
Stage: Agnostic
Average Check Size: $250k
Investment Location: Global
12. Gobi Partners
Website: https://gobi.vc/
Notes: Constantly organize and participate in initiatives to support female entrepreneurs: Asia Gender-Smart Investing Forum, She Loves Tech, Female Founders Mentoring Hours.
Focus: FinTech, Cloud Services, SaaS, E-commerce, Marketplaces, AI, AR, VR, Robotics
Stage: Seed-Series C
Average Check Size: not specified
Investment Location: SEA, Hong Kong, Pakistan
13. Click Ventures
Website: https://www.clickventures.vc/
Notes: Founded by entrepreneur turned VC, Carman Chan (Women to Watch in Asian Tech by Nikkei Asian Review).
Focus: Internet-enabled business model
Stage: Seed to series A
Average Check Size: not specified
Investment Location: U.S, SEA
14. She Loves Tech Fund
Website: https://www.shelovestech.org/
Notes: She Loves Tech Fund is a global early-stage VC fund investing exclusively in women-led technology startups coming out of She Loves Tech Global Startup Competition
Focus: female-led ventures
Stage: Pre-seed to Seed
Average Check size: up to $100K
Investment Location: Global
15. Indonesia Women Empowerment Fund
Website: https://www.moonshotventures.org/
Notes: IWEF (Moonshot ventures subsidiary) invests in disruptive tech solutions, which are led by gender-balanced startup teams, and which address barriers to women’s livelihoods.
Focus: agnostic, gender lens
Stage: Pre-seed to Seed
Average Check size: not specified
Investment Location: SEA, Indonesia
16. BBG Ventures
Website: https://www.bbgventures.com/
Notes: BBG Ventures is a New York-based seed-stage venture capital fund investing in women-led technology companies.
Focus: female founders with startups in Health and Wellbeing, Future of Education and the Future of Work, Climate Friendly Products and Platforms
Stage: Pre-seed to seed
Average Check Size: not specified
Investment Location: U.S.
If there are other female-friendly funds or opportunities which you would like to share with the community, feel free to reach out to us!
