INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Claire Diaz-OrtizContributor
Claire Diaz-Ortiz is an angel investor and bestselling author of nine books that have been published in more
Stanford and Oxford. More posts by this contributorLike most investors, I am a little too obsessed with unicorns.But not just the Silicon
As the mother of a five-year-old daughter, my interests also veer in a pink, sparkly direction
So it should not be all that surprising that I recently found myself in a dusty corner of the internet where die-hard unicorn fans go to
will be possible in the future
they are probably exceptionally rare
Stanford or the one lone female investing partner at Sequoia3 to posit that these same conversations were probably happening all over
about to see a pink, winged stampede.Just look at the recent trends
Alongside TruePublic, where I am an advisor and angel investor, I ran a study asking if people believed we would see more female-led
unicorns in the 2020s.6 At the time of this article, 68% of the 6,500 respondents said they believed we would see more, with 30% of women
already has 6,500 respondents, making it statistically significant.In fact, female-founded and female co-founded companies are actually
over-indexing for unicorn status despite a lack of investment dollars.Shelby Porges, co-founder of The Billion Dollar Fund for Women,
Porges, whose group has mobilized more than 80 venture funds to pledge to invest over a billion dollars into women-founded companies,
winged female unicorns (OK, alicorns) is coming down the pipeline in the 2020s:1
Women invest in women at 3x the rate of menNew data reveals that women invest in women at nearly three times the rate that men do and with
the (slow) rise in the number of female investing partners at VCV firms, we are poised to see more and more gender-balanced founding teams
of investment into female-led companies
When asked if a female investor was more likely to invest in a female entrepreneur, 64% of people responded affirmatively (64% of these
individuals were women and 63% were men).9Jomayra Herrera agrees
race/ethnicity, I am optimistic that we will see more female-led and people of color-led unicorns over the next decade
We know that diverse teams not only function better, but they are able to see areas of opportunities that more homogenous teams might miss
I think the next generation of investors are more likely to question conventional wisdom, forms of pattern recognition that may lead to
view at the table makes the decision clearer and more certain
reminds us not to forget the impact that angel investors can have
Susana Robles has spent two decades leading the charge to invest in women in Latin America and alongside Marta Cruz of NXTP Labs is
co-founder of WeXchange, a platform that connects women entrepreneurs from Latin America and the Caribbean with mentors and investors.As
win in all aspects: profitability, as well as greater social and environmental awareness
time, they obtain higher returns
Women are in charge of 64% of all global purchasing decisions on products and services, so having women on C-level positions increases the
Jennifer Neundorfer is the co-founder of Jane VC and an investor in Kinside, a parenting app that just raised a $3 million seed round
to do with the new markets that female founders are creating
Hunter Walk of Homebrew was one of the initial seed investors in Winnie, an online marketplace for childcare that recently raised a $9
recognized was the clear founder-market fit displayed by Mauskopf and her co-founder Annie Halsall
While everyone else was starting crypto and scooter companies, we were building the first-ever tech platform for $57 billion child care
the products and services she invests in, Bendz is also an example of investor-market fit, which I believe will open new markets in the
decades to come.Something else investors like Walk and Bendz believe in? Outsized opportunities
And the potential for outsized opportunities are especially ripe in untapped markets
The rise of femtech is yet another example of how the intuitive success of the concept of founder-market fit ultimately needed more female
founders for certain markets to blossom
the world was operating with only 50% of the population in control
Ornella Moraes is one of four female co-founders of Brazilian-led Sousmile, which recently raised a $6 million USD Series A led by Kaszek
And so are the leaders of the company
At Sousmile, there are four female co-founders and two male co-founders
In this way, the rise of female founders and co-founders can completely change markets
Emerging markets will take the leadFinally, certain emerging markets pose a particular opportunity for female founders by over-indexing for
both large IPOs and female founders
2017 was the first year that more of the largest IPOs in the internet sector globally came from emerging markets
comes from emerging markets, where most global internet users live
of innovation takes resilience
resilience, there is a different appetite for risk and innovation
(I call this resilience innovation.)Perhaps the easiest example of emerging market innovation fueled by resilience is fintech
Emerging markets and their often unstable economies boast a much higher number of frustratingly unbanked individuals
This brings about innovation
Hanna Schiuma, the Brazilian-born fintech founder of ElasBank, where I am an angel investor and advisor, explains how ubiquitous such
of startup female founders
Laura Stebbing is co-CEO of accelerateHER, a global community of leaders addressing the under-representation of women in tech through action
We will start to see a higher volume of resilient, scalable companies emerge as leaders build more diverse networks and ecosystems that
Susana Robles agrees, and says the reason is in part due to the nature of a committed ecosystem to support one another
collaboration is leading to great female founders
2019, in fact, saw more funding going to female co-founders in Latin America than in Europe or the USA.13This will lead to future alicorns
works just like any other selection process
We fill the top with a bunch of great women in supporting roles in emerging market startups, these women take their experiences and found
A percentage of these will convert to scaleups raising Series C and D rounds with valuations at $1 billion or higher
Platzi and former regional manager of Seedstars, one of the leading accelerators and investors fostering female entrepreneurship in emerging
female-founded unicorn, agrees
Oranburg, Duquesne University School of Law, Pittsburgh PA, USA and Mark Geiger, Duquesne University School of Business, Pittsburgh PA,
USA12Forthcoming research from A Technology News Room/Crunchbase13Forthcoming research from A Technology News Room/Crunchbase
