The Agora Initiative launches with a $10K venture competition for women founders

Let’s be honest: When it comes to gender inclusion, the tech industry hasn’t been winning.

When it comes to getting capital flowing to female founders, the sector has been particularly abysmal: About 2% of venture capital goes to female founders — or 21.5% if you include companies that have at least one woman on the founding team.

Nonetheless, studies indicate that female founders generate a 35% higher return on investment for investors and outperform their male counterparts by 63%. If you look at the data, investing in women is smart business.

But it should be happening more. In our region, about $4.6 billion of venture capital went into DC-area companies in 2023, and $369 million went into companies with at least one female founder. By the math, in 2023, more than 92% of venture capital into DC-area companies went to all-male founding teams.

I’ve been immersed in this world for over nine years — first as a venture-backed female founder, when I was one of the fortunate few who did raise from great VC firms, and then as a community builder bringing the Vinetta Project to DC. When I started my career, 2.7% of venture capital went to female founders. Now we’re at 2.0%. The numbers have, unfortunately, been going in the wrong direction.

We’ve got some work to do, y’all!

So, as we kick off Women’s History Month, I’ve been fortunate to work with a wonderful group of women to launch The Agora Initiative, a local organization dedicated to addressing the glaring gap in venture capital funding for female founders.

To get the ball rolling, we’ve partnered with law firm Pillsbury, investment management firm Brown Advisory, and accounting and finance firm Tarsus (formerly VentureCount) to launch a $10,000 venture competition for DC-area female founders.

We’ve been greeted with a groundswell of support from the local venture community, with investors from 25+ local firms volunteering to review applications — thus giving participating founders unprecedented visibility within the local venture community. Several later-stage founders have also volunteered their time to mentor applicants, while other partners have offered pro bono services to applicants.

Applications close on March 27, and finalists will pitch live on May 8. But that’s just the beginning: Our vision is much more grand.

Technical.ly community, we’d love your help spreading the word to local female founders who are building venture-scale businesses. By applying, our team of volunteers can learn about each female-founded business and, hopefully, find as many ways to support it as possible.

And to others passionate about supporting local female founders, we will be circulating ways to get involved via our newsletter.

The female funding gap is wide, and even more so in our neck of the woods. But we’re given hope by the outpouring of support for Agora’s mission from the venture and founder community. Together, we can move the needle.