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(opens in a new tab), Tanya Van Court, Founder and CEO of Goalsetter(opens in a new tab), Lisa Skeete Tatum, Co-Founder and CEO of Landit(opens in a new tab) and Reham Fagiri, Co-Founder and CEO of AptDeco(opens in a new tab)).
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.
