Female-founded startups landed more deals globally in 2019 than ever before

We all know the disruptive stories of female-founded startups like Glossier and ezCater. And we also know how those success stories belie the much harder time thousands of other women entrepreneurs have when it comes to raising capital.

That's why it's so important to have historical data and a window into how these things may be changing, so that the industry can consistently benchmark its successes and failures in an attempt to correct historical inequities in the ways venture firms distributed capital.

Looking at the latest numbers from All Raise and PitchBook, it's clear that for every step forward, the industry still has a long way to go.

In 2019, female-founded startups across the world landed a record 4,399 investments, according to data from All Raise, a nonprofit organization that wants to increase the diversity in the venture capital industry, and PitchBook.

While deal count has increased, dollars raised declined in 2019, sliding to $37.7 billion from $49.9 billion in 2018. It's worth noting that 2018 included an outsized round from Ant Financial, which may have skewed dollar totals. It's also worth pointing out that over the same period, venture capital firms in the U.S. alone invested more than $130 billion into startup companies.

For what it's worth, 2019 broke all kinds of records. All Raise and PitchBook's data shows that 2019, compared to a decade ago, had a 1,408% increase in deal value. Additionally, according to Crunchbase data, female-founded unicorns, companies valued at more than $1 billion, were being born at an unprecedented rate in 2019. While a female-founded unicorn is still rare, the proliferation is notable, and goes well with one of All Raise's goals: to increase investment in female-founded companies.

However, All Raise's latest data doesn't touch on one of its goals, which is to double the percentage of female investment partners at tech VC firms over the next 10 years. Last month, Pam Kostka, the CEO of All Raise, wrote a Medium blog on how more women in 2019 became VC partners than ever before. All Raise claimed major U.S. firms added 52 women partners in 2019. Last month, Recode said those numbers might be "overstating the progress" due to the different definitions of partner. For example, some female partners may have the title of partner, but not the decision-making capabilities.

Bottom line: The numbers are important, but the nuance within them is more telling, especially when it comes to diversity. For proof, look as far as Kostka's headline: "More Women Became VC Partners Than Ever Before In 2019 But 65% of Venture Firms Still Have Zero Female Partners."