- Winning Together. The quickest pathway to gender equity in venture capital is mixed gender funds. Mixed gender funds have doubled as a percentage of emerging funds in two years and were more successful at fundraising as well. They were 1.2x more likely to reach a first close than all-male funds, and 1.3x more likely than all-female funds.
- Focus and Specialization. Female-only funds are more likely to specialize in one sector; top focus areas include healthcare, diversity, and impact investing.
- Ready Enough. Emerging female VCs are refusing to compromise on theses or “pay their dues”: Female-only funds tend to have younger general partners and are more likely to start a fund on their own compared to men.
- Women Supporting Women. Emerging female VCs are creating an entire startup ecosystem where women support women. Not only are they funding more female founders, they are bringing high net worth female colleagues in as first time limited partners. All-female funds are backed by an average of 31% female LPs. That’s 1.4x more than mixed-gender funds and 2.8x more than all-male funds.
Diversity across emerging VC funds is gaining momentum as more women take on influential roles shaping the future of the industry. From launching new funds as general partners to actively allocating capital as limited partners, women are helping broaden access, challenge norms, and strengthen the foundation of emerging VC.
There is still a long way to go before the industry reaches the optimal 50–50 split, but at the emerging manager end of the ecosystem, gains in parity are happening much faster than at large funds, according to Decile Group’s first Women in Emerging VC study.
In recent years, multiple sources have estimated that women hold just 17–18% of checkwriting roles at VC firms. For instance, PitchBook reported that in 2023, women made up 18% of decision-makers at U.S.-based VC firms with funds smaller than $50MM. In contrast, among U.S. VC firms launched through Decile Group’s VC Lab accelerator that same year, 25% of the general partners were women— 1.4–1.5x above the broader market. In 2024, 31% of funds that successfully completed VC Lab had a female general partner— nearly twice the latest market estimates for funds under $50MM.
When it comes to strides in gender parity, most of the momentum is coming from the growth of mixed-gender funds, which has doubled as a proportion of all funds over the past three years. The share of women LPs has also grown steadily each year since 2022.
Alongside these gains in representation, fundraising outcomes are also strong across gender compositions. All-female and mixed-gender teams perform at least on par— and in some cases better— than all-male peers across key fundraising metrics.
This article draws on data from 600+ VC Lab alumni funds and 8,000+ LPs on Decile Hub to explore gender trends in fund leadership, fundraising performance, sector strategy, and LP behavior— offering an up-to-date look at how gender dynamics are evolving across the emerging VC landscape.
Decile Group’s VC Lab accelerator launches roughly 60% of all emerging venture funds worldwide, with an average fund size of $10.5MM. Our data offers a unique lens into the state of emerging managers and sub-$50MM VC funds.