Over the past three years, the share of female founders in the Russian small and medium-sized business segment has increased from 39% to 45%, according to a study by Zerno Ventures. Despite the narrowing of the gender gap, female startups accounted for only 17% of closed deals in the Russian venture market in 2023.
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Women’s startups accounted for about 17% of deals and 8% of VC investments in 2023. In the Russian VC market, 31 deals related to women’s business projects were made, which is the average of the last eight years. This follows from the results of a study by the Zerno Ventures fund, reviewed by RB.RU.
In 2022-2023, the average investment in projects with female founders decreased six times compared to 2021 (up to 0.5 million dollars), while the check for male projects decreased almost ten times (up to 1 million dollars). Among projects whose founders are only women, the largest investment ($500 million from Zerno Ventures) was attracted by the resale platform The Cultt.
FashionTech has become a leader in investments for Russian projects with female founders. Male startups did not attract investments in this segment in 2023, according to the study.
The study is based on an analysis of 1,846 transactions with Russian founders of companies that were present in the Russian market during the period 2016 to 2023.
Author:
Kirill Bilyk
Source: RB
I am a professional journalist and content creator with extensive experience writing for news websites. I currently work as an author at Gadget Onus, where I specialize in covering hot news topics. My written pieces have been published on some of the biggest media outlets around the world, including The Guardian and BBC News.
