Unfortunately, things didn’t improve at the start of 2019. According to Crunchbase, 17% of VC dollars went to companies with at least one female founder. But for businesses with only female founders, that number drops to 2%. On the debt funding side of things, a Lendio study found that only 24% of the businesses accessing capital in the past year were women-owned.

An HSBC survey of 1,200 entrepreneurs, mostly women, from around the world, found that a third reported gender bias when trying to raise capital. It was worse in the West, where 46% of American entrepreneurs said they experienced gender bias and 54% of U.K. women reported bias. Women said that investors asked them more invasive questions centered around their personal lives, rather than about their business idea. HSBC reported that overall, women typically secured less money than their male counterparts.

This discrepancy is due to numerous factors: women typically are more conservative when valuing their businesses. They tend to not seek out investor money (mostly due to the statistics above). And sometimes it’s because of bias on the part of investors.

Women are fighting through the struggle

As a new mom, Sasha Rowe found herself facing a dilemma too many women face—a choice between going back to work or staying home with her newborn son. Disheartened by the dilemma, she ultimately decided not to choose one or the other. And knowing other women and men face similar choices, Rowe decided to create an opportunity to change the norm, not just for herself, but for others in the same situation. She started a business called Rivvly, Inc., which offers specialized virtual assistants and high-volume remote staffing.

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