In 2019, 52 women became new VC or general partners in the US, up 37% from last year's record of 38; 65% of VC firms still don't have a woman partner
a record high! Check out the @AllRaise blog post on the latest women in VC stats! https://twitter.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
All Raise has been publishing these counts since its 2018 launch by 36 female VCs, which set explicit targets: lift women founders' share of funding from 15% to 25% in five years and double the share of women in partner roles in ten. The baseline was grim — PitchBook found all-female founding teams got just ~2.2% of the $85B VCs invested in 2017 — and momentum was building even then, with Q2 2018's 14 senior-role additions the strongest recent quarter.
First-order effects
- The 52 women who became new VC or general partners in 2019 now hold check-writing authority at their firms, directly expanding the pool of decision-makers who can champion underfunded founder segments.
- The roughly two-thirds of US firms still without a woman partner now stand out against a rising benchmark, giving LPs and candidates a clearer signal when evaluating them.
Second-order effects
- As partnership ranks diversify, capital allocation follows: the gap between the ~2.2% all-female-team share of 2017 dollars and the ~28% of total US deal value female founders reached by 2023 traces the same pipeline this hiring wave feeds.
- Firms competing for deals and talent face pressure to match peers' partnership composition, turning what was a differentiator into a defensive hire.
Third-order effects
- If the trajectory holds — All Raise reported by mid-2024 that ~18% of US firms have at least one female partner, double the 2018 level — partner diversity becomes table stakes for fundraising rather than a differentiator, though the 65% figure shows most firms remain outside that norm.
- Sustained growth in women-led partnerships would structurally shift which founders get funded, moving the industry toward All Raise's original 25%-of-funding target and reshaping the venture talent market around it.
The trend: US venture capital is steadily diversifying its general-partner ranks, with All Raise's annual counts serving as the scoreboard for whether firm composition and founder funding shares converge on its stated targets.