Black women and Latinas are raising more venture capital funding than ever, tapping into Silicon Valley’s wealth-generating machine amid the nation’s racial reckoning, but funding parity is still a pipe dream for women of color, according to a new report.
“We have seen the number increase but not enough,” said Lauren Maillian, chief executive officer of of digitalundivided, which put out the report.
Black women-founded companies raised about $700 million in funding from 2018-2019, a significant increase from the previous two-year period, yet still account for only 0.27% of the $276.7 billion in venture capital investment, according to the ProjectDiane report from the not-for-profit group, which supports female entrepreneurs of color and, is named for civil rights pioneer Diane Nash.
Latina-founded companies raised $1.03 billion in the same period, accounting for 0.37% of total venture capital investment during those two years, the report found
Combined, Black women and Latinas make up less than 1% of all venture capital investment.
ProjectDiane is a biennial demographic study that tracks public funding announcements for Black women and Latina entrepreneurs.
