Beyond Cathie Wood, More Women Are Dominating The Investment Space

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Cathie Wood, CEO of Ark Invest, speaks during the Bitcoin 2022 Conference at Miami Beach Convention Center on April 7, 2022 in Miami, Florida.

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Cathie Wood isn’t the only woman making bold investment moves these days. The Ark Invest CEO is part of a broader trend of increased female participation in the investment world. According to the Female Founders Fund’s (FFF’s) 2025 Review of Funding for Female Founders, women now hold 17% of decision-making roles at U.S. venture capital firms. That’s nearly triple the percentage from 2014.

A Growing Wave of Women Is Transforming Investment

McKinsey’s recent analysis article titled “The new face of wealth: The rise of the female investor” also highlights this shift. According to McKinsey, women in the U.S. controlled approximately $18 trillion in investable assets in 2023, up from $10 trillion in 2018. The analysis also predicts that women-controlled assets will reach $34 trillion by 2030.

McKinsey highlights several reasons behind the rise in female investors. For instance, women are now surpassing men in educational attainment and are capturing a growing share of high-paying jobs. Rising divorce rates and women’s longer life expectancy than men have also contributed to more women relying solely on their own finances and an increase in affluent widows. These factors contribute to greater financial independence and a rise in investable assets among women.

There Are More Women-Led Unicorns, Yet Investment Gaps Persist

An increasing number of women-led startups are also achieving unicorn status. According to PitchBook’s “All-In Report,” 13 new women-founded companies reached a $1 billion valuation in 2024, bringing the total number of female-founded unicorns to over 120. This surge can be partially attributed to the ongoing AI boom. Many emerging, women-led unicorns—such as Thinking Machines Lab, founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati—focus on AI-driven solutions.

Yet despite steps forward, overall funding for women-led companies remains low. According to FFF’s report, women-only founding teams received just 2.1% of total venture capital funding in 2024, down from 2.4% in 2014. PitchBook’s report also notes that while larger checks are being written for women founders, the total number of deals has declined. Additionally, a persistent valuation gap remains, with women-founded companies consistently receiving smaller investments than their male counterparts.

Pathways For Women Investors To Support Women Entrepreneurs

A unique opportunity is emerging as more women enter the investment space. As FFF highlights in its report, with more women writing checks, “the ripple effects will be transformative.” Women investors will not only decide which companies and founders receive funding, but also the technology and innovations that get built. In other words, how women invest today will define what the future looks like tomorrow. A new window is opening for the growing number of women investors to fund women-led ventures. However, as FFF emphasizes, it’s crucial investors not only fund established women-founded startups and brands, but also in early-stage companies when “conviction matters most and capital is hardest to access.” To truly drive change, women investors should consider backing not just the unicorns but the promising companies still finding their footing.

And backing women-led companies isn’t just a matter of equity, it’s a smart financial move. As previously reported, research shows that companies with more women in leadership consistently outperform their peers.

With the face of wealth shifting and more women stepping into investment roles, the potential to uplift more women to the top of companies has never been greater. Increasingly, women are gaining the capital to decide what gets built and who gets funded. Yet closing the funding gap for female founders will still require intentional investment at all stages. Especially in early-stage companies that may not have as many resources on hand. The rise of the woman investor is more than a trend, it’s a long-overdue transformation. One with the power to redefine the business world as we know it.