US FinTech gender equity insights

Fintech’s $10 Trillion Blind Spot: Women Fintech claims to be innovative, but there’s still one big oversight: women control $10 trillion in U.S. financial assets and make 80% of household financial decisions—yet financial products are still mostly built for men first. The facts: 💸 Most investment platforms focus on high-risk trading, despite studies showing women outperform men in long-term investing. 🏡 Mortgage models assume a male-led, dual-income household—even though women are now the largest group of first-time homebuyers. 📉 Financial planning tools rarely account for career breaks, part-time work, or alternative income streams. The next wave of fintech leaders won’t just "include" women—they’ll design for them from the start. At beatvest, we’re showing that this works: 50% of our users are women, 50% are men—a rare gender balance in fintech. When you build financial products for everyone, you tap into a much bigger market. Win-win.

In 2024, the landscape of #venturecapital investment for #femalefounders has shown both progress and persistent challenges. Here's an overview: 📌 #Funding trends: Female-founded startups have continued to receive a disproportionately small share of venture capital. In the U.S., startups founded exclusively by women garnered only about 2.2% of the capital invested in venture-backed startups in the first half of the year. Meanwhile, #startups with at least one female co-founder slightly improved their share, representing 14.8% of total capital invested. This stark disparity highlights a #fundinggap that has not significantly narrowed over the years. 📌 Sector-specific insights: The femtech sector, which focuses on female health technology, has seen particular struggles. Female-founded #FemTech companies have historically raised less than their male counterparts, with 2024 continuing this trend. However, there's a silver lining with an increase in female investors and venture capitalists, which could influence more equitable funding in this sector. 📌 Investment success stories: Despite the broader funding challenges, some female-founded companies have managed significant rounds. For instance, companies led by female CEOs have raised substantial funding, showcasing that with the right combination of innovation, market fit, and investor interest, female-led ventures can secure significant investments. 📌 Challenges and biases: Female founders often face biases in the investment process. Reports indicate that 84% of female founders feel they encounter gender bias during evaluations, and they are asked significantly more questions about their ability to scale compared to male founders. Moreover, the average cheque size for female-led startups remains notably lower than for male-led ones. 📌 The bright side: There's an increasing awareness and action to address these disparities. Initiatives like the Investing in Women Code in the UK are making strides, with signatories accounting for a significant portion of VC deals in 2023, suggesting potential for positive change. Additionally, there’s a growing narrative that investing in female entrepreneurs can boost global GDP significantly, encouraging more investors to consider diversity in their portfolios. 📌 Conclusion: While 2024 has not seen a dramatic shift in venture capital distribution to female founders, there are signs of incremental improvement and a stronger push towards parity. However, the journey towards equal #investment opportunities for female founders is ongoing and requires sustained effort from both the entrepreneurial and investment communities. Some resources 👇🏽 https://lnkd.in/dX9y58Cd https://lnkd.in/dz2hq44h https://lnkd.in/dNkujwhB

This week's #fintech news: 1. Lule D. Steps Down as CEO of eToro US: She will transition to an advisory role for the rest of 2024, helping her successor, Andrew McCormick, to take over. With experiences in high-profile leadership roles across banks, brokerages, and fintech, she has created a historical mark for women in the industry. This is especially true considering women hold less than 10% of leadership positions as founders and members of executive boards of fintech firms and only 5.6% of CEOs in fintech are women.   Only four Black women have ever been CEOs in a Fortune 500 company: - Ursula Burns served as CEO of Xerox Co. from 2010 to 2016, - Mary Winston was the interim CEO at Bed Bath & Beyond in 2019. - Rosalind Brewer when she assumed the role of CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance in March 2021. - Thasunda Brown Duckett when she became the President & CEO of TIAA in May 2021. “I don't want to be a unicorn; I want to be a farm horse,” Demmissie told me in my first interview with her in 2021, when she was still president of Ally Invest (see my old InvestmentNews reporting linked in comments). 2. Tala Stacks Leadership Team With Women: Women in fintech face the "triple glass ceiling" at the intersection of financial, technological, and entrepreneurial gender inequalities. Tala is defying this trend. The company announced this week that it recently hired Damier Xandrine as its new Chief Legal Officer. Xandrine joins a leadership team already rich with female talent: Shivani Siroya, founder and CEO; Jennifer Loo, CFO; Kelly Uphoff, CTO; Lauren Pruneski, Head of Brand and impact; and Julia K., Head of People. World Economic Forum data shows that fintech companies with over 30% women leaders are more likely to outperform less diverse firms. These companies also see a 12% increase in their female customer base and a 30% increase in products targeting female customers. 3. Startup Katapulte Brings Fintech Solution to CPG Industry: For SMBs in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry, securing shelf space in major retailers like Target and Walmart is akin to getting drafted into the NBA. That’s according to Michelle Dalzon, founder of Katapulte, a startup dedicated to providing equitable access to loans for micro-businesses through technology solutions. Over 70% of the 33 million small businesses in the U.S. require funding, yet only 48% have their needs met.    Despite over $200 billion in available funding from 1,300 Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), many small businesses remain unaware of these resources. Katapulte aims to change this by building an active lender pipeline. *** Love news like this? Sign up for the Fintech Is Femme newsletter via link in comments 💜 *** Photo featuring Lule and me at Future Proof 2022. 🥂

*WOMEN & WEALTH: THE WEALTHSPAN* ⬇️ I am excited to share our newest research report from Ingeborg Investments, where we introduce a framework called The Wealthspan to frame and explain how to build financial products more inclusively – and with women in mind. WHY THIS? Last year’s Ingeborg Investments' Motherhood report focused on quantifying a market we knew was massive and venture-scale, but often is underestimated and underinvested in. In contrast, Fintech is a wildly well-funded category. While many solutions have been built (and very well-capitalized) for the general population, underlying data reveals that in practice few have worked well for women. We believe that there is a meaningful and venture-scale opportunity to create and capture value for companies and investors who see this distinction. WHY NOW? We calculate a $10T TAM, set against the backdrop of 5 competing headwinds/tailwinds driving change and creating opportunity in the Wealthspan for women: 1) higher education, 2) non-linear life paths, 3) new definitions of success, 4) financial literacy and 5) financial decision making. WHO CARES? This work has helped refine our thinking about how people move through life and how that can shape their ability to be in financial control. We break this down into three segments: - Financial Control: how you spend your life - Financial Relationships: who you spend your life with - Financial Education: what you learn determines how you earn We found that this lens became the foundation for questions we think startups can help answer. A few that are in focus for us: - How do we make romantic relationships more financially fair? - Why are women investing less than men and how can this be addressed? - Can credit-worthiness be built in new ways? - If Social Security disappears, can the private sector catalyze new income streams for seniors? - Can we get rewired to save instead of to spend? Download the report to see what startups are already leading the charge on this work. We are tracking them with interest and hope you will too! Thank you to Mira Kaufman and Nimisha Shinday for their incredible work, leadership and partnership on this research deep dive – the best! We are also so proud to have women-led companies tackling these issues and opportunities already in our portfolio: Sallie Krawcheck Ellevest Christie Horvath Wagmo Suneera Madhani Worth AI Sheila Stafford TeamSense Laurie Rowley Icon DOWNLOAD: https://lnkd.in/eE652msm

The increasing wealth in women’s hands isn’t just a matter of equity—it’s a powerful strategy for driving economic growth and outperforming markets. Here’s why investing in female founders is a smart financial move, backed by data: Higher ROI: Female-led startups deliver impressive returns. A study by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) found that for every dollar of funding, female-founded startups generate 78 cents in revenue, compared to just 31 cents from male-founded startups. This efficiency highlights how women maximize resources to drive performance and outcomes. Diverse Leadership Wins: Companies with diverse leadership teams—including women in founder or executive roles—consistently outperform. McKinsey & Company's "Diversity Wins" report found that organizations in the top quartile for gender diversity are 25% more likely to achieve above-average profitability. This is because diverse teams bring broader perspectives, foster innovation, and reduce groupthink. Unlocking Untapped Markets: Women often create solutions for markets they intimately understand, especially in industries like healthcare, wellness, and consumer goods, where women drive 80% of purchasing decisions. For example, the femtech sector, addressing women's health needs, is projected to grow to $97 billion by 2030. Supporting female founders means gaining early access to these high-growth, underserved opportunities. The Bigger Picture: Beyond individual businesses, shifting wealth into women’s hands creates ripple effects. Women are statistically more likely to reinvest in their communities, prioritize social impact, and drive sustainable economic growth. Gender-lens investing is not just a social good—it’s a financial imperative for long-term resilience and profitability. The data is clear: empowering women founders isn’t just about fairness—it’s about optimizing returns and unlocking innovation. The increasing wealth in women’s hands isn’t just a matter of equity—it’s a powerful strategy for driving economic growth and outperforming markets. How can we, as investors, operators, and supporters, do more to bridge the funding gap and back the incredible potential of female entrepreneurs? Let’s start a conversation.👇

Even with equal performance, female fintech founders in the US are still overlooked by venture capital. Looking at 10 years of data, Flourish Ventures found that the gap between men and women founders in US fintech and insurtech hasn’t moved much. Here's the data that stood out to me: 🔶 All-female-founded fintech companies captured just 1% of US fintech deal value in 2024, well below the 1.9% VC average across sectors. 🔶 Companies with at least one female founder made up 14.7% of deal value in fintech, vs. 19.9% across all US sectors, a 26% gap that’s held steady for a decade. 🔶 The deal count is even lower, with just 2.9% of fintech deals went to all-female-founded startups, compared to 6.5% across all sectors. 🔶 Female-founded fintechs show comparable graduation rates, valuations, and deal sizes when matched against the broader landscape. 🔶 Insurtech reflects the same pattern, with just 1.1% of deal value going to all-female-founded companies. 🔶 2/3 of these deals are concentrated on the West Coast and in the Mid-Atlantic. Equal performance hasn’t led to equal capital. That’s not a pipeline issue, it’s a funding one. #WomenInFintech #VentureFunding #FinancialInclusion #couchonomics #payments #fintech #embeddedfinance #digitalassets #futureofmoney #futureoffinance - ⁠- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 👍 Hit like ♻️ Share it with your network 📢 Drop a comment 🎙️ Check out my podcast Couchonomics with Arjun on YouTube 📖 Get my weekly newsletter on LinkedIn: Couchonomics Crunch 🕺💃 In the MENA region? Join our Fintech Tuesdays community! 🤝 Let's connect! - ⁠- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I mapped 60 funds actively investing in women-led startups and innovation across AI, SaaS, fintech, climate, healthcare, and consumer. More investors are actively backing female founders and the opportunities are real, if you know exactly where to look and who to pitch. 🇺🇸 US-BASED 1. Female Founders Fund → B2B, Consumer, Fintech, Healthcare 2. BBG Ventures → Consumer, Health, Future of Work 3. Halogen Ventures → Consumer Tech, B2B Software 4. Backstage Capital → Generalist 5. SoGal Ventures → Health, Consumer 6. Fearless Fund → Underrepresented founders 7. Emmeline Ventures → Women's Health, Fintech, Climate 8. G9 Ventures → Consumer, Health, Wellness 9. f7 Ventures → Future of Work, Consumer 10. HearstLab → Enterprise Tech 11. ResilienceVC → Fintech 12. Operator Collective 🔆 → B2B, Enterprise 13. Mendoza Ventures → AI, Cybersecurity, Fintech 14. Harlem Capital → Generalist 15. Mother Ventures ⭐ fresh $10M fund → Consumer, Maternal Health 16. GingerBread Capital → Healthcare, Consumer 17. Chloe Capital → Enterprise Tech, HealthTech, CleanTech 18. Kalos Ventures → Workforce, Care, Education ⭐️ just closed $78.8M fund 19. The Helm → Women's Health, Climate, Deep Tech 🇪🇺 EUROPE 20. Auxxo Female Catalyst Fund → SaaS, Fintech 21. Fund F → Sector Agnostic 22. Impact Shakers → ClimateTech, Inclusion Tech 23. CapitalT → Future of Work, Climate 24. Eka Ventures → Health, Sustainability, Life 25. Arāya Sie Fund ⭐ brand new fund → HealthTech, Climate, Fintech, DeepTech 26. Feminvest Ventures → Tech, Consumer (Nordic) 🌎 LATAM 27. Amplifica Capital → AgTech, HealthTech, Fintech 🌍 GLOBAL 28. Everywhere Ventures → Future of Work, Health, Fintech 29. Epic Angels → Generalist 30. Kalaari Capital → Fintech, Deep Tech …and 30 more funds I can't fit all on here. I put together a free database with all 60 funds, including partner details, sector focus, investment stage, geography, websites, and contact details. Download the Ultimate Database of VC Funds Investing in Female Founders here 💜 https://lnkd.in/eYTcyBhU Hope this is helpful! ♻️ Repost to help another founder find their investor. (*𝘧𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘤 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘺𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘶𝘢𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦) #femalefounders #womeninbusiness #venturecapital #femtech #investing

Women entrepreneurs continue to face significant barriers in accessing credit, even when they run profitable businesses. 📊 IFC - International Finance Corporation’s new report, Cracking the Credit Code, examines how alternative data and AI-driven credit models can help expand access to finance for women and underserved borrowers. It shows that when women gain access to credit through alternative data and AI-driven models, they often perform as well as, or better than, men. 📈 Key insights from the report: 💡Women borrowers often show strong repayment behavior when assessed using alternative data models 💡Several fintech lenders report that women receive higher credit limits over time 💡Women borrowers are more likely to access repeat loans and continue engaging with formal finance 💡Access to credit can increase confidence in applying for future financing and expanding businesses. Drawing on global market analysis, firm case studies, borrower-level data, and interviews with industry leaders, the report explores how new credit models can help expand access to finance to women and underserved borrowers. 🎯 Expanding access to finance is central to The World Bank Group’s target to provide 80 million more women and women-led businesses with access to capital by 2030—recognizing that expanding inclusive financing is critical to unlocking women’s entrepreneurship, economic participation, and job creation at scale. 🔗 Read the full report: https://lnkd.in/g8GbZjnf #WomenEntrepreneurs #FinancialInclusion #Fintech #AccessToFinance #AccelerateEquality Sophie Sirtaine Namita Datta Jaylan ElShazly Karan Singhal Emanuela Di Gropello Amy Luinstra Jessica Schnabel MONTSERRAT GANUZA Anushe Khan Jose Etchegoyen Hector Shibata Salazar Carlos Sánchez Reboiro