All Raise: ~18% of US VC firms have at least one female partner, double from 2018; PitchBook says female founders had almost 28% of total US deal value in 2023
Context & Ripple Effects
The figure extends a multi-year shift from 2018, when roughly three-quarters of US VC firms had no female partners, despite a record quarter for senior appointments. A subsequent rise in new women VC and general partners in 2019 reduced that share of firms without a woman partner, but did not eliminate the gap.
On the capital side, PitchBook's 2023 tally puts female-founded companies at a meaningful share of US deal value, while also showing that all-female founding teams raised far less in absolute terms. The reported progress in partner representation therefore matters as one measure of who participates in investment decisions, not as proof that funding access is uniform.
First-order effects
- All Raise's data gives VC firms and limited partners a clearer benchmark: fewer than one in five firms had at least one female partner, even after the share doubled from 2018.
- Female founders' nearly 28% share of 2023 US deal value establishes a measurable funding outcome alongside the partner-representation gain; PitchBook's 2023 funding breakdown for female-founded companies provides the underlying scale.
Second-order effects
- Firms that still lack female partners face a more visible comparison with peers as hiring, promotion and partnership composition become trackable over time.
- The gap between broader female-founded-company deal value and the much smaller amount raised by all-female teams suggests that aggregate gains can mask uneven access across founder groups, making more granular fundraising data consequential.
Third-order effects
- If partner representation continues to rise, VC diversity will increasingly be evaluated through both decision-maker composition and downstream allocation outcomes, rather than appointment counts alone.
- The later decline in women founders' share of US VC funding in 2024 indicates that progress in investor representation does not automatically translate into a steadily rising share of capital for women founders.
The trend: US venture is moving toward more measurable accountability for gender representation, but investor diversity and founder funding outcomes are advancing on separate, uneven tracks.