The Receipts // PitchBook · All-female founding teams · 2009 vs 2026

Seventeen years apart. The line barely moved.

In 2009, all-female founding teams received roughly 1.3% of US venture capital dollars. In 2026, after 17 years of pledges, panels, named diversity initiatives, and record commitments, the figure is 2.1%. The conversation moved by orders of magnitude. The number moved by less than one percentage point.

2009 1.3% all-female founding teams' share of US VC dollars

2026 · Q1 2.1% all-female founding teams' share of US VC dollars

+0.8 pp 17 years apart

All-female founding teams · share of US venture capital dollars
Year	Share of US VC dollars	Source
2009	~1.3%	PitchBook trend coverage; closest published anchors are 1.2% (2008) and 1.8% (2012)
2026 (Q1)	2.1%	PitchBook 2025 All In and US VC Female Founders Dashboard, latest reading
Change, 2009 to 2026 (17 years)	+0.8 pp	Both readings remain below 3%.

Less than one percentage point of progress over almost two decades is not progress. It is the noise band of a number that has been stuck since before the first woman-in-VC manifesto was written.

Sources. PitchBook published all-women US founding-team share of US venture capital dollars, as cited in the PitchBook US VC Female Founders Dashboard and PitchBook-All Raise reports. Anchor years published directly by PitchBook: 1.2% (2008), 1.8% (2012), 1.7% (2016), 2.1% (2025). The 2009 figure is not separately published; ~1.3% is the closest estimate from PitchBook trend coverage. The 2026 reading reflects Q1 2026, latest available.
Note. "All-female founding teams" counts ventures whose entire founding team is female. Companies with at least one female founder track at materially higher and more volatile shares (peaked at 27.7% in 2025, heavily concentrated in two AI deals). Verify the exact Q1 2026 value against the PitchBook dashboard before publish.

The Receipts byKathryn Finney