Investment Trends in Female-led Ventures and Market Dynamics

Investing in female-led companies is now recognized as a mainstream opportunity by major institutions.

### Investing in Female Entrepreneurs: A $250 Million Fundraising Milestone
* 💼 "We are very excited to have announced **more than $250 million raise**, the **largest fund backing female CEOs**."
* 🏦 Major institutions, including over ten university endowments and foundations, have recognized that investing in women is not only **beneficial** but also a **sound business strategy**.
* 💰 Notable self-made billionaires, such as Sara Blakely and Melinda French Gates, alongside global banks like UBS, have joined in supporting this fund, indicating a **shift towards gender lens investing** as a **mainstream opportunity**.
* 📈 Female entrepreneurs have been shown to deliver higher revenue, generating **more than twice the revenue per dollar invested** compared to their male counterparts, often achieving **exits faster**.
* 🔄 Despite a slower IPO market, various exit opportunities, including **M&A and private equity buys**, are being considered by female founders.
* ⚖ The recent pushback against funds focusing on women and minority founders has been countered by a **growing excitement around investing in women**, marking a **significant shift in the investment landscape**.
* 📊 Current statistics reveal that male-founded companies still receive **98% of investment capital**, but the successful performance of female-led companies is expected to **change this trend**.
* 🌟 The recent fundraising success is seen as a turning point, suggesting that institutional investors are beginning to **allocate more capital towards female entrepreneurs and diverse teams**, ultimately aiming to **grow the economy**.

Who did you have to come on board? Which El Pais are interested? Well, first of all, thank you for having me on behalf of my partner, Heidi Patel, and the rest of our Thinking Back team. Yeah, we're very excited to have announced more than $250 million raise, the largest fund backing female CEOs. And we were fortunate, despite the trends that Dylan shared, to be able to do this in this market. And it was in large part due to major institutions who came on board to support the fund. What sort of institutions are willing to almost take what now feels that the pendulum has swung on a more I focus to investing. Yeah, I think people, major institutions. We had more than ten university endowments. We had more than ten major foundations. We had, for example, a hospital and others that really do care about returns and I think have realized that investing in women and gender lens investing is not just something that feels good, but

is actually good business. And so they came on board, along with many individuals, self-made billionaires like Sara Blakely of Spanx and sneaks to Melinda French Gates, that major philanthropists, and to many others. And we think the combination of big institutions that I named, a global bank like UBS, Cambridge Associates, their LPs, these kinds of institutions have realized that this is now a mainstream opportunity. We were just looking at some of your previous portfolio from the first fund. The vintage is good. The billions that you've managed to raise well, these founders have now managed themselves valuable at Guild Education, for example, Spring Health, and Invest. But these companies haven't yet exited per se, some of them. When do you think that that might occur in the first fund? How is the IPO pipeline? Look, if you do, these female founders want to go to IPO, are they looking at M&A opportunities?

Yeah, it's a great question. I mean, I think that data has shown that female entrepreneurs do deliver higher revenue, more than twice as much per dollar invested, and tend to exert, on average, a year faster than their male counterparts. And these companies, you know, like all companies, there's been a slower IPO market, but we invest sometimes as early as a late seed. And so, it can take companies typically eight, ten years, as long as well as an open IPO market. Of course, there's also M&A opportunities, PE buys, and others. And so, depending on the company, different outcomes will occur. We were just hearing from the people who've jumped on board to commit capital in and what I kind of already referenced of this moment where the pendulum has swung, we are hearing more pushback against funds that focus on women, people of color, minority founders, rather than wanting to embrace them. We've seen the Fearless Fund, for

example, actually have legal issues being able to allocate its grants to women of color. Was that anything that you heard of when you were out this summer raising the money? You know, we really mostly heard that people were excited by the opportunity that investing in women is no longer just a passing trend and wake in the wake of the MeToo movement. And I think this race makes clear that this is good business, good for the economy, and certainly here to stay. So that's mostly what we heard. Male-founded companies continue to get 98% of investment capital. And almost all of our companies have men and women in the top team. And we think gender-diverse teams outperform. And our goal is to grow the pie here and grow the economy, which is what we're doing by backing these great female leaders. Oh, boy. Jenny. But you say that stop just 2% basically a VC money going to female-founded companies and it isn't changing.

And I'm interested as to why you think that is occurring. If you give us all the statistics that they're managing to exit quicker, they're building revenue faster. We're seeing better outcomes. Yeah. You know, I think this is the moment where it's starting to turn to us. This raise from rethink impact that we announced. It really shows that these mainstream investors, these institutional investors see the opportunity and that the opportunity between the data and now examples of companies like many that you held up, you know, a company like spring getting a $3.3 billion valuation last month and many others, we think that's going to be the turn that leads to capital being more allocated in ways that grow the pie. So we're excited. We think this is that moment that things are going to finally unlock and change that data point that's been stuck for a while.

Rethink Impact Founder on $250M Raise, VC Outlook

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Fundraising for Female CEOs: A Game Changer

The Thinking Back team, led by Heidi Patel, has raised over $250 million, the largest fund supporting female CEOs.

Major institutions, including university endowments and foundations, have joined in, recognizing that gender lens investing is good business.

The fund's success is also backed by self-made billionaires and global banks, highlighting the mainstream opportunity in investing in women.

Female entrepreneurs generate higher revenue, delivering over twice as much per dollar invested and growing faster than their male counterparts.

The investment timeline for these companies can take eight to ten years, influenced by market conditions and various exit opportunities.

There is a growing pushback against funds that focus on women and minority founders, despite the increasing commitment of capital towards them.

There are legal issues preventing the allocation of grants to women of color.

Despite this, there is growing excitement about investing in women, especially after the MeToo movement.

Male-founded companies still receive 98% of investment capital, but the goal is to grow the pie and the economy by backing female leaders.

Companies are exiting quicker and building revenue faster, leading to better outcomes.

Mainstream and institutional investors are recognizing the opportunity, as seen in the recent $3.

3 billion valuation of a company like Spring.

This shift in investment trends is expected to unlock capital allocation in ways that promote growth and change the stagnant data points.