Looking for Funding? Check Out These 5 Options for Female Founders
When launching Masthead, my business partner, Julie, and I briefly considered trying to get funding—and then promptly threw the idea out the window. Why? Because we felt like we had a better chance of picking the winning Powerball numbers than actually convincing investors to see the value in our business.
That was 12 years ago—but unfortunately, our chances wouldn't have improved much if we were launching Masthead today. Finding funding for female entrepreneurs remains a challenge: The latest data shows that women-owned businesses generate $2.7 trillion in sales every year, contributing millions of jobs and helping to boost the economy in the process. Impressive, right? Yet women-founded startups receive less than 2 percent of venture capital funding to get them off the ground.
What's worse, women of color receive even less funding (0.39% of all venture capital funding spent in 2021, according to Fearless Fund).
Though the current data is disheartening, the good news is things are starting to change, thanks to the rapid growth of women-owned businesses over the past few years. Now, there are more funding options available than ever before--no matter the size of your business. Let's dive into a few of them.
Tory Burch Foundation
Personally, I love the Tory Burch Foundation; with its staunch focus on empowering women to build their businesses, the organization provides access to educational resources as well as paths to capital. The latter comes in three formats:
The Bank of America loan program, which offers affordable loans from community lenders
Grants for Women of Color, a partnership with Fearless Fund
Nest Artisan Revolving Fund, which provides repayable grants to women artisans and makers. The foundation has helped launch businesses like Rumi Spice and Soul Popped Gourmet Popcorn.
Female Founders Fund
The "leading source of institutional capital for female founders," Female Founders Fund (FFF) has raised seed capital totaling more than $3 billion in enterprise value since 2014 and has helped businesses like BentoBox (one of our past nominees for the Women in Content Marketing Awards) and Zola get off the ground.
The company invests at the seed stage, pre-launch, and post-launch, in the range of $500,000 to $750,000. Even better? FFF makes funding decisions in roughly four to six weeks, so you won't wait endlessly to learn if you have its support.
BBG Ventures
BBGV is a female-founded, early-stage fund backing women-led initiatives in the tech space. The available funding goes toward ideas that focus on the intersectionality of consumers, in particular initiatives that cover health and wellness, education, climate-friendly products and platforms, and underserved or overlooked communities.
The fund has worked with female-owned businesses like Winky Lux and Mented Cosmetics. BBGV leads or co-leads seed or pre-seed rounds, with an average investment size of $500,000 to $1 million.
The Helm
The Helm is a venture capital firm and community founded to support female entrepreneurs. Led by Lindsey Taylor Wood, it focuses on investing in startups founded or led by women, aiming to close the gender funding gap in entrepreneurship.
They provide funding, networking opportunities, mentorship, and educational resources tailored to the needs of women founders. The Helm advocates for gender equality in entrepreneurship and connects women with experienced investors and advisors to help them succeed in fundraising and scaling their businesses.
Chloe Capital
Self-described as a "movement" on top of a venture capital firm, Chloe Capital invests in women-led tech ventures with gender and diversity at the center.
The fund looks for problem-solvers in climate change, health, and education. And the numbers speak for themselves: 100 percent of companies in Chloe Capital's portfolio--like Cora and CareAcademy--have at least one woman at the helm, while 50 percent have at least one BIPOC leader. The firm makes seed-stage investments of $100,000 to $250,000 and also hosts accelerators all over the United States.
Bonus: Small Business Administration
This one may sound a little bit stodgy compared with the others, but the fact is the Small Business Administration (SBA) actually has a ton of government resources and educational services specifically for female founders.
The SBA offers a business development program that helps small, disadvantaged businesses stay competitive, and some SBA loans come with counseling to help women business owners at different stages of their journey. Plus, there's peace of mind that comes from knowing the funding channels are backed by the government--so I'd recommend checking out the SBA to see if it could be right for you.
