Female Founders: Bigger than One Startup
Why Every Fundraising Round Is a Feminist Act of Economic Redesign
In Europe, companies founded or co-founded by women accounted for just 9.6% of all venture capital raised in 2023. In deep tech, women-led startups received only 15% of seed funding, and a mere 11.4% of funding across early and late-stage rounds. The numbers make one thing clear: capital is not distributed on merit alone. Structural bias continues to determine whose ideas are deemed “scalable,” whose innovations are considered “fundable,” and who gets to participate in designing the economy of the future.
When I walked into the Investor Readiness session of the Female Founders Bootcamp this week, I thought I was there to learn how to fundraise in this stark reality. But what was truly being revealed was something much bigger: how women founders can reclaim the narrative of capital itself.
Because every euro we raise—or don’t—is a declaration of who holds the pen in writing the next chapter of our economic system. When women lead ventures, we aren’t just launching businesses; we are shifting the axis of value.
As a woman building in both green tech and social impact through Sustainabar, I live at the intersection of two worlds: the world of vision, where I know the change I want to bring; and the world of capital, where that vision must be validated, quantified, and negotiated.
In that second world, women face a silent but persistent cultural undertone: our ideas may be “nice,” but are they “venture-scale”? Our mission is “inspiring,” but is it “investable”? The unspoken assumption is that purpose competes with profit—when in reality, purpose drives profit in the next economy.
Carina Roth offered a mindset shift that cut through decades of conditioning:
“Fundraising is not finance. Fundraising is sales.”
Women have been socialized to ask, to justify, to demonstrate worthiness. But sales is not about justification. Sales is about inevitability. Confidence. Momentum. Leadership. It is about positioning your company as the future—and inviting investors to buy a stake in that future before it becomes obvious.
That realization unlocked three truths for me:
We are not chasing investors. We are building alliances.
A woman-led business in sustainability, health, education, AI, or care is not a “niche play”—it is infrastructure for the next economy. Investors are not our gatekeepers. They are prospective partners in systemic transformation.Capital has psychology—and we must master it.
Early-stage investment decisions are 50% based on the team. In other words, you are the product. Your conviction, clarity, and ability to convey urgency directly shape your valuation.Storytelling is not decoration. It is a feminist intervention.
When women founders articulate their vision with unapologetic ambition, we are not being “charismatic”—we are reclaiming financial agency in a system historically built without us.
Every woman-led company that gets funded is not just a personal milestone—it is a redistribution of power. It is evidence that the economic future will not replicate the past. We are not merely entering the existing investor landscape; we are actively constructing a new one, where value is defined not only by exit multiples, but by impact, sustainability, and legacy.
My three takeaways for fellow women founders:
Start fundraising before you need the money.
Momentum is built through relationships, not transactions.Own your story and your metrics.
Data earns attention. But vision earns belief.Frame your mission as inevitable.
You are not asking for validation—you are offering participation in the future you are building.
Your fundraising journey is not just about capital. It is about agency.
You are not fitting into the economy of yesterday.
You are building the economy of tomorrow—and deciding who gets a seat at the table.
Profit + Purpose = Power. And when women build, the future shifts.