Venture capital funding overall has surged in recent years, but the numbers for female founders haven't progressed at the same pace. Last year, global VC funding to female founders dropped dramatically. Crunchbase data confirms more than 800 female-founded startups globally received a total of $4.9 billion in venture funding through mid-December, representing a 27% decrease over the same period last year.

Hundreds of new female-led companies were launched in the past 12 months and many women-led funds and incubators focused on female founders invested in them. According to International Finance Corporation, only 11% of seed funding capital in emerging markets goes to companies with a woman on their founding team, and the figures are even lower - 5% - for later-stage funding.

The gender pay, financing, and leadership gaps between women of color is even larger. If you are a founder of color, particularly African-American woman or Latina, you face enormous challenges in obtaining funding in this environment, but the landscape is getting better. As of December 2018, only 34 Black female founders had ever raised $1 million in venture capital for their company. In recent years, ProjectDiane, a biennial report on the state of Black and Latinx women founders by the organization digitalundivided, reported that stat has nearly tripled, with 93 Black women and 90 Latinas now reporting they have secured $1 million or more in investor backing for their businesses.