99designs Digs Into Details Behind Female-Founded and Led Startups Who Successfully Secured Venture Funding

OAKLAND, Calif. & MELBOURNE, Australia, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Only 8% of US-based startups who closed a round of venture capital funding in 2016 have at least one female founder and a female CEO. However, among the female-founded, VC-funded startups, more than half (51%) have a woman at the helm. These are just a few of the topline findings revealed in a recent study by online graphic design marketplace 99designs analyzing Crunchbase and 99designs data.

99designs, which counts startups and entrepreneurs as a large part of the company's customer base, took a deeper look at the VC funding gap unveiled in previous entrepreneur surveys this year showing that female founders tended to raise significantly less outside capital than their male counterparts. Using Crunchbase data pulled in June 2017, 99designs looked at US-based startups who raised a Seed, Series A or Series B round in 2016 to identify who among the female-founded and female-led companies had secured the most funding, which industries were getting funded and which geographic regions were spinning out the most VC-backed, female-founded, female-led businesses.

"Women own about one-third of the businesses in the U.S., but these women-founded companies account for only about 16 percent of companies who received venture funding in 2016," said 99designs Chief Marketing Officer Pamela Webber. "We wanted to shine the light on who, where and what these successful funding stories were."

Some of the top findings (also illustrated in an infographic and list on our blog) include:

• More than half of the female-founded and VC-backed startups currently have a woman at the helm. While only 16% of all the companies who closed a seed, A or B round of funding in 2016 had at least one female founder, 51% of the 246 funded startups who did have a female founder also have a woman CEO.
• San Francisco Bay Area/Silicon Valley leads the country in female-funded entrepreneurs. The San Francisco Bay Area leads the list as the most common headquarter city for female-founded and female-led, VC funded companies, followed by New York (38% vs. 22%). Los Angeles/Orange County is in third place with 7% of the companies on the list. Others in the top five were Chicago and Boston. The SF Bay Area also tops the chart for the number of female-founded and female-led companies with the highest amount of capital raised to date (seven of the 10 most highly funded startups who closed a Seed, Series A or B round in 2016 are located in the Bay Area).
• Healthcare and Commerce/Shopping are top industries for female-founded and funded startups. According to 99designs' analysis, Healthcare, Commerce/Shopping, Software, Biotech and Data/Analytics are the top five industries represented by female-founded and led companies. What's more, three of the 10 highest funded, women-led and founded startups who closed a round last year were Biotech concerns. 
• Dark blue, "combination mark" logos most common among top-funded female startups. 99designs' branding experts also analyzed the logos of the top 50 funded, female-founded and female-led companies to note common themes. The majority (68%) of companies used a "combination mark" logo, which is when a pictorial, abstract or a symbolic element is used alongside the typographical element. In terms of colors, dark blue emerged as a predominant trend (34%), most often paired with white or orange. Within specific industries, pink dominated within marketing and collaboration tools, and black dominated among luxury brands.

About 99designs
99designs is the world's largest on-demand design marketplace, connecting a global community of freelance designers with businesses of all sizes to complete their design needs. Created by designers for designers, 99designs began with a group of designers who were competing together to create the best designs. In 2008, that friendly competition grew into a design marketplace that has now become the world leader in online graphic design. 99designs is changing the lives of designers around the world by providing them with an opportunity to access customers globally, to earn income, and to build their portfolios. 99designs has operations in Oakland, Melbourne and Berlin.  

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SOURCE 99designs