On paper, 2025 was a breakthrough year. Female-founded startups in the US raised $73.6 billion, according to PitchBook, nearly double the $44.7 billion they raised in 2023.
But two-thirds of that money went to AI companies, and two of them, Anthropic and Scale AI, took more than $30 billion between them, about 40% of the AI total. Add Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab, which raised a $2 billion seed round in July 2025, and a few very large checks explain most of the record.
Meanwhile, the number of deals for female founders fell for the fourth year in a row, and all-female teams fell faster than mixed teams. More money is going to fewer women.
Why it matters if you’re building
The record says investors will back women at enormous scale when the company is in AI. The falling deal count says the path to a first check is getting narrower, and 82% of decision-makers at major US venture firms are men.
That’s why every issue of Pretty Technical includes the Founder’s File: grants and programs that don’t depend on a venture firm saying yes.
Source: PitchBook, US All In: Female Founders in the VC Ecosystem, reported by Fortune, March 2026.