Is There a Gender-Based Funding Gap in Web3? Female Founders Received Only 7% of VC Funding in Two Years

Key Insights

• Female-led Web3 startups received only 7% of VC funding in two years, significantly less than their male counterparts.
• This gender funding gap exists despite a $27.85 billion overall VC investment in Web3 during the same period.
• Bitget says that this gender gap exists, and continues to widen over time.
• Lack of diversity in the VC industry, limited mentorship for women, and insufficient awareness are all prominent causes of these issues.

Gender gaps have always been an issue in several crypto niches, and Web3.0 is no exception.

Male-led startups and companies have been shown severally to receive way more funding and attention than female-led ones. This issue has caused endless disagreements between both sides, that persist even to date.

However, while these issues have constantly been swept under the rug due to insufficient proof over the years, there might now be a boatload of data, too big to bury.

According to a report by Bitget Research, Web3.0 startups collected a jaw-dropping $27.85 billion in VC funding from Q1 2022 to Q3 2023.

Disappointingly, a lot less than 10% of this money went to female-led startups.

State of Female Representation in Web3

Bitget's report shows without a doubt, that not everyone is benefiting equally from the boom in web3.

As we mentioned earlier, Bitget Research's report shows that a whopping $27.85 billion in VC funding was collected from VC investors by web3 startups.

However, the same report also shows that only 6.43% of this money went to startups founded or run by women.

For a little more perspective, this means that only about $1.77 billion went to the women, while the male-led startups received an insane $26.08 billion, or 93.57%, of the total.

To clarify, this report also shows that the so-called "female-led Web3 startups" (which refers to startups with at least 50% female executives) accounted for just under 9% of all startup firms in the sector.

However, this is no excuse, because Bitget's report says that the gender gap in Web 3.0 VC funding was not only persistent but also widening over time.

"The share of female-led blockchain startups shows an upward trend, but the moment of reaching equilibrium with male-led ones is far distant", Bitget says

Challenges Women Face

Data from TechCrunch also shows that this trend is international, and not focused on Web 3.0 alone.

This is because out of the $238.3 billion in venture financing awarded to US firms in 2018, just around 1.9%, or around $4.5 billion, went to teams comprised entirely of women.

The 2022 number turned out to be even lower than the 2.4% from 2021.

Overall, the report from Bitget highlighted the need to develop lasting solutions to close the gender gap in web3 VC funding.

Bitget notes that the possible causes for this gender gap in the Web3 ecosystem may be due to several factors:

• A lack of diversity and representation in the VC industry (which, naturally, is dominated by male investors).
• The absence of mentorship and networking opportunities for women in the Web3 arena, which limits their access to resources, knowledge, and connections.
• The lack of knowledge and guidance on Web3 and its advantages among women.

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