Give to gain: Why African women remain venture capital’s most underserved market
The idea of a fruitful vine is one of abundance, something that grows and multiplies. Few metaphors capture this better than women.
Across families, communities, and economies, women have historically demonstrated an extraordinary capacity to multiply what they are given. When women gain access to resources, the benefits often ripple outward; improving household welfare, strengthening communities, and expanding economic opportunity.
Yet in venture capital, the financial system designed to fuel innovation and scale transformative businesses, women remain one of the most underserved populations.
This contradiction sits at the heart of the global funding ecosystem: women are proven catalysts of economic growth, but they continue to receive a fraction of venture capital funding.
A Venture Capital Landscape Slowly Changing
The venture capital landscape is evolving. Decades ago, women were largely absent from investment committees and boardrooms. Their ability to build global companies was frequently questioned, and their presence in high-growth technology sectors was minimal.
Today, that narrative is beginning to shift. Women are increasingly visible as founders, investors, and operators in the venture ecosystem. Across markets, more female-led startups are emerging, and women are slowly gaining ground in venture capital firms.
But progress remains uneven and in many cases, painfully slow.
The theme of International Women’s Day this year, “Give to Gain” captures this reality well. The venture ecosystem stands to gain enormously by investing in women, yet funding patterns suggest that this opportunity remains largely overlooked.
The Global Funding Gap
Data consistently shows that female founders receive only a small share of venture capital funding globally.
According to PitchBook data, female-founded companies raised $38.8 billion in 2024, representing a 27 percent year-over-year increase. While this growth appears encouraging on the surface, the distribution of venture capital still reveals a significant imbalance.
All-male founding teams received 83.6 percent of total venture funding ($241.9 billion). Meanwhile, mixed-gender teams secured 14.1 percent ($40.7 billion) and female-only founding teams received just 2.3 percent ($6.7 billion).
In other words, despite the increase in absolute funding, the proportion of capital flowing to women-led ventures remains strikingly small.
Africa’s Gender Funding Gap
The picture in Africa mirrors this global trend.
A report by the African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (AVCA) found that only 27 percent of venture funding recipients were startups with either a female founder or gender-diverse founding team.
More recent analysis highlights an even sharper imbalance.
A 2026 TechCabal report revealed that women-led startups across Africa secured only $48 million in venture funding, compared with over $2 billion raised by male-founded startups.
Even more concerning, the share of funding going to gender-diverse teams has declined sharply in recent years. Data shows that the proportion of venture capital flowing to teams with at least one female founder dropped from 18 percent in 2021 to just 8 percent in 2025.
These figures suggest that, despite growing conversations about diversity and inclusion, the venture ecosystem may actually be moving backwards in some areas.
Nigeria’s Contradictory Progress
Nigeria offers an interesting case. Report by TechCabal shows that only about 10 percent of female-founded startups in Nigeria secured venture funding between 2019 and 2023. While this represents a modest improvement compared to earlier years, it still reflects a deeply unequal investment landscape.
Ironically, the gender composition of the venture workforce in Africa tells a different story.
According to the AVCA report, women make up 44 percent of the venture capital workforce in Africa and they account for 38 percent of investment professionals.
Both figures are higher than global averages, where women represent about 35 percent of investment teams, and significantly higher than Europe’s 24 percent.
However, representation alone does not translate into influence.
Gender diversity is more common in smaller venture firms, which typically manage smaller pools of capital. The largest firms, those controlling the majority of funding, remain far less diverse.
As a result, the individuals who ultimately shape major investment decisions across the continent remain overwhelmingly male.
Structural Barriers Holding Women Back
The funding gap is not simply a venture capital problem. It reflects deeper structural inequalities within the broader economy.
One key barrier is the limited pipeline of women in high-growth sectors like science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
This challenge is particularly important as emerging sectors increasingly dominate venture capital allocation.
For instance, artificial intelligence has become the single largest recipient of venture funding globally, attracting 61% i.e $258.7 billion in recent investments.
Even in the United States, one of the world’s leading hubs for female entrepreneurship, two-thirds of venture dollars going to female-founded startups in 2024 flowed into AI-related companies.
Without stronger female representation in these frontier technologies, women risk being excluded from the fastest-growing segments of venture capital investment.
Gender disparities in venture capital are also closely tied to broader wealth inequalities.
A global Wealth Equity Index report by WTW in collaboration with the World Economic Forum found that women are expected to retire with only 74 percent of the wealth accumulated by men.
Several factors contribute to this disparity:
- Persistent gender pay gaps
- Delayed career trajectories due to caregiving responsibilities
- Lower participation in high-paying industries
- Gaps in financial literacy and investment access
Women also carry a disproportionate burden of unpaid labor.
Globally, 76.2 percent of unpaid care work is performed by women, more than three times the amount performed by men. This significantly limits the time women have to pursue income-generating opportunities or build wealth.
In Africa women own about 20% wealth. In Ghana, married women’s share of couple wealth is only 19%. Across 15 sub-Saharan African countries, more than half of widows report receiving no asset inheritance, further restricting women’s ability to accumulate capital.
Globally, women earn less than men, receiving about 81 cents for every dollar earned by men when comparing overall median earnings. In Nigeria, women’s human capital wealth stands at just 35.7 percent of men’s, meaning women are expected to earn only a little more than one-third of what men are projected to earn over their lifetimes. I.e although women make up about half of the adult population, they account for just over a quarter of the country’s total human capital wealth.
These structural barriers shape the venture ecosystem itself. Venture capital typically favours founders with access to financial networks, capital reserves, and professional networks, resources that systemic inequality often denies women.
The Economic Case for Investing in Women
Yet the evidence overwhelmingly shows that investing in women is not just a moral imperative, it is a powerful economic strategy.
Research consistently finds that closing the gender gap could increase global GDP by roughly 20 percent, while broader gender equality could add as much as $28 trillion to the global economy$28 trillion to the global economy.
Startup performance data shows a similar trajectory.
Studies show that female-founded startups generate 78 cents in revenue for every dollar of funding raised, compared to just 31 cents for male-founded startups.
They also tend to burn about 15 percent less capital, suggesting greater capital efficiency, a key advantage in today’s tighter venture funding environment.
Representation Changes Investment Outcomes
A important factor shaping funding decisions is representation within venture capital firms themselves.
Evidence shows that VC firms with at least one female partner are 2.3 times more likely to invest in female founders. Likewise, firms with at least 30 percent female partners invest 4.7 times more in female founders than all-male firms. Also, female angel investors allocate around 35 percent of their investments to women founders, compared to just 13 percent among male angels.
These patterns highlight a critical insight: who controls capital strongly influences where that capital flows.
For Africa, this means that increasing female representation is not enough, women must also gain influence within the largest venture firms, where the majority of funding decisions are made.
Closing the Gap
Addressing the gender gap in venture capital will require action across several fronts.
First, the pipeline of women entering STEM and technology sectors must expand, ensuring that more women are positioned to build high-growth companies.
Second, more women must rise into senior decision-making roles within major venture capital firms, particularly those controlling the largest pools of capital.
Finally, broader structural issues including wage inequality, financial literacy gaps, and the disproportionate burden of unpaid care work must be addressed to allow women greater participation in wealth creation.
Give to Gain
The venture capital ecosystem prides itself on identifying overlooked opportunities before the rest of the market does.
By that definition, women may be one of the largest untapped investment opportunities of our time.
The evidence is clear: when women receive capital, they build resilient companies, create jobs, strengthen communities, and drive economic growth.
If venture capital is truly about backing the future, then the message is simple: Invest in female founders today and the world will gain tomorrow.