Last year, U.S. startups with all-women teams received 1.9% of the approximately $238.3 billion in venture capital allocated, a drop from the previous year1, despite the fact that female-founded companies continue to outperform the broader market when it comes to the median time it takes to exit.2 Meanwhile, in Europe, funding to women-only teams dropped from 3% in 2018 to 1% in 2022.3
Morgan Stanley Inclusive Ventures Lab (the Lab) is striving to change that. Since its inception in 2017, our in-house startup accelerator—which provides access to capital, curated content and powerful networks to early-stage technology and technology-enabled companies led by underrepresented founders in the U.S. and Europe, the Middle East and Africa—has had 20 women alums raise $1 million or more in venture capital. Most recently, that honor has gone to Mandy Price, Founder and CEO of Kanarys, who has raised over $10M, a milestone only 20 Black women in the U.S. like her have passed4 (including Lab alums, Elise Smith, Founder and CEO of Praxis Labs, Tanya Van Court, Founder and CEO of Goalsetter, Lisa Skeete Tatum, Co-Founder and CEO of Landit and Reham Fagiri, Co-Founder and CEO of AptDeco).
In fact, raising $1M in capital is an achievement reached by only about 2,300 women total in this country as of 20195—and only 289 Black and Latina women as of February of last year6. Here’s a bit more about a few of the remarkable Lab alums who have done so, along with some stats on their companies.
