Calling all female founders in the DMV: The Agora Initiative is back with another $10k challenge

This week marks the first days of Women’s History Month. And in our broader region’s tech community, we have a lot to celebrate: Arlington, the District of Columbia and Baltimore consistently rank among the best cities for women in tech.

But that’s not the whole story. Here’s the part that’s harder to talk about.

In 2024, venture funding for female-founded and -cofounded startups in the DC region dropped by 26.7% from $345 million in 2023 to $253 million last year. Meanwhile, funding for women-led startups nationally increased by 12.7% during the same time.

While other regions made progress, we fell behind.

And this isn’t just about funding totals. In 2024, 77.4% of all venture capital in the United States went to all-male founding teams. Just 2.0% went to all-female teams. 

This isn’t simply another gender gap — it’s bad business. According to a 2018 Boston Consulting Group report, female-led startups consistently outperform their male-led counterparts on ROI, revenue generation and capital use efficiency. Yet, the funding gap persists.

The Agora Initiative was founded last year to solve this problem. And it would have been nice if I could claim victory and say that, in our first nine months, we quashed this gender disparity once and for all. Unfortunately, the stats above don’t look much different than those I cited when we first launched.

We’ve seen evidence, however, that we are making a difference in small ways. Our programming helped our founders connect with investors who have ultimately written checks into their companies. In our first six months of programming, our founders have raised $5 million in pre-seed capital.

Skye Lawrence of Ampere Financial, an integrated electrification and financing solution for manufacturers, calls herself an “Agora regular.” Over the past year, the CEO and cofounder attended four Breakfast Club events, meeting one-on-one with over a dozen investors, mentors and experts.

“I kind of jokingly call myself a regular or heavy Agora user,” Lawrence said. “I have benefited from a barrage of introductions. Agora at large and the network have really helped me make important connections. I was introduced to another founder/mentor who was most definitely instrumental in our ability to fundraise, and that was a complete game changer for us.”

Lawrence’s Agora mentor, Further CEO Kevin Bennett, is a serial venture-backed CEO. With Bennett’s guidance and the support of Agora’s network, Ampere successfully raised a $1 million pre-seed round with investments from the Hustle Fund and angels within the Agora community.

And we like to think we add value outside of connecting founders to the local venture community. Aditi Shekar of Zeta said she benefited from the community Agora helps build among the region’s entrepreneurship ecosystem.  

“In a world full of programming for founders, Agora stands apart by instantly adding value,” she said. “All the events I’ve gone to have made some kind of direct impact on me or my business.” 

We’re fortunate to report a perfect NPS of 100 from both founders and investors in the community.

I won’t give us too much credit, though — like I said, the regional investment numbers aren’t pretty.

So, it’s time to get back to work! Looking to 2025, we will once again run a $10,000 venture competition for local female-founded startups, culminating in a pitch event in front of our investor and founder community. The event is made possible thanks to support from professional employer organization broker PairPEO, finance and accounting firm Tarsus, the Golden Triangle Business Improvement District, the Penn West Equity and Innovation District and the DC Tech and Venture Coalition. All eligible applications will be reviewed by a panel of 30 local investors. All applicants will also be considered for additional Agora programming, including our office hours programs with our EIRs and investors, as well as our curated founder & funder dinners.

Applications are due on March 7, and we’re looking forward to meeting more great founders that our team can support.

And if you’re not a founder but are interested in following our work, you can sign up for our newsletter. 

These numbers aren’t going to change on their own. But we’ve seen what happens when founders get the right connections and support. Let’s make 2025 the year we move the needle.