How Women Lead Launches New Initiative ‘The New Table’

In 2022, an estimated $445 billion was invested in startups. Yet only 17.2% of these venture dollars went to companies with at least one female founder, and only 2.4% went to startups founded solely by women. Although female entrepreneurs were given more venture dollars than ever before by Q3 2022, their capital gain still paled in comparison to their male counterparts. This grave divide is not due to a lack of entrepreneurial women, as more women are entering the business world than ever before, but rather reflects continued gender bias, lack of diversity, and social inequality within the venture capital sphere.

A new initiative coined The New Table, spearheaded by our partner organization How Women Lead, is bridging this gender gap by catapulting women into the world of Venture Capital (VC). Founder Julie Castro Abrams believes that women need a more dominant seat in the VC realm and is constructing a brand-new table – built by women, made for women – with the goal of permanently altering the gender inequity in VC.

The New Table seeks to inspire 10,000 women to invest some of their capital in venture, specifically in companies and funds founded by women. By integrating women more fully into the world of VC, The New Table aims to change the balance of power and to shift control over which types of business are – and aren’t – funded. This “women supporting women” initiative will catalyze progressive change within the start-up industry that so often excludes women from the narrative. It will also positively impact Black, Indigenous, and BIPOC female founders, who are even more underserved and underrepresented.

The transformative power of a more gender-balanced venture capital sphere will extend far beyond the realm of business. Funding female founders who create innovative, disruptive, and women-focused technologies opens the door to products and services that are designed with women as the primary, not the secondary, customers.

Women are statistically more likely than men to invest their money in ways that align with their ethics and values. Encouraging women to command their seat at the VC table will not only lead to a more equitable distribution of venture funds, it will also shift the capital pool towards emphasizing social responsibility. The New Table will catalyze social change, fighting inequity and inequality within the existing male-dominated economic system.

NOTE: Angel and venture investing are risky. You can educate yourself about this form of investing through IFB’s How Angel Investing Works Deep Dive course.