Women-Led Startups See 81% YoY Surge In Funding In H1 2024

After a significant drop in capital secured by women-led startups last year, such startups remained on investors’ priority list in the first half of the ongoing calendar year. 

According to Inc42‘s H1 2024 Funding Report, women-led startups secured $523 Mn through 75 deals in H1 2024, representing a massive 81% year-on-year (YoY) increase in funding compared to the $289 Mn secured through 62 deals in H1 2023. 

This uptick in funding can be directly attributed to Atlan’s mega funding round, D2C brand Foxtale’s $18 Mn round, and Mobkwik’s $6 Mn debt funding from BlackSoil, just to highlight a few.

Of the total funds raised by women-led ventures, startups in the fintech space bagged $225 Mn, followed by women-led enterprise tech startups netting $122 Mn and ecommerce ventures lapping up $101 Mn. In terms of the deal count, ecommerce sector ruled the roost with 28 deals.

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Geographically, Delhi NCR-based women-led startups bagged 21 deals and snapped up $171 Mn, the highest among its peers. Mumbai took the second spot in terms of the number of deals (19), whereas Chennai-based women-led startups stood second in total funding  ($166 Mn).

However, despite this positive trend, gender disparity in capital deployment persists within the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem. Notably, of the 480+ funded startups in H1 2024, only 15% had at least one female cofounder.

The gender discrepancy in investor interest was also highlighted by the former Minister of Women and Child Development, Smriti Irani, in December 2023. She pointed out that many women-led startups in science and technology were not translating into commercial ventures. “Even today, risk-taking by VCs for women-led initiatives based on innovation is far lower compared to those by men,” she had said.

In February, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the government had extended 43 Cr loans, amounting to INR 22.5 Lakh Cr under PMMY. Nearly 70% of these loans were given to women entrepreneurs.

Despite these government efforts, there has been limited private sector activity focussed on women entrepreneurs. One significant initiative came in February when Peak XV Partners announced the third cohort of its women entrepreneurs-focussed Spark programme, featuring 14 startups and 16 female founders. 

The four-month-long programme provided an equity-free grant of $100K to women founders, along with access to domain knowledge, mentorship, a curated community of female founders, and exclusive events.

Meanwhile, Indian startups saw funding reach $5.3 Bn during the first six months of 2024, down a mere 1.8% compared to the $5.4 Bn secured in H1 2023.

Per the Inc42 H1 2024 report, seed and growth stage companies drove the funding trend in H1 2024 and late stage ventures saw investors practising caution. Bengaluru continued its reign as the most-funded startup hub in India, bagging $1.57 Bn across 134 deals. Following the suit was Mumbai with over $1.5 Bn raised across 114 deals.

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