According to research by BCG X, the tech build and design unit of Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and People of Crypto, women are underrepresented in European startups and tech. Especially in Web3, a cluster of tech for VR, blockchain and crypto, the gap between male and female is big: only 13% of Web3 founding teams include women. Also, male founded Web3 startups raise almost four times more capital.
“If you’re a female entrepreneur, and you saw the stats and you saw that you’d get 4x less money if you were an entrepreneur in this space, would you go?”, asks Jessica Apotheker in a interview with Sifted, BCG’s chief marketing officer. The answer to this question is likely ‘no’ and the gap between funding and founding are therefore interlinked, Apotheker says. “You would go with a guy and probably put the guy forward in the pitch.”
Women underrepresented in Web3
The research says that from founding teams to investors, women are underrepresented in European startups and tech. And Web3, a cluster of tech for VR, blockchain and cryptocurrency, is even worse. Only 13% of Web3 founding teams include women. Among the founders, this gap is worse at 7%. Also, male-founded Web3 startups raise almost four times more capital than those founded by women.
Apotheker continues: “if you’re putting yourself forward, you’re actually endangering your capacity to raise money.” Simon Berry, cofounder of People of Crypto, added: “At the end of the day, investors tend to invest in people who look like them, resemble them, have similar backgrounds.” And that’s a problem since only 15% of Web3 investing teams are women and 6 of the 10 main Web3-focussed funds don’t have any female partners.
Women aren’t taken seriously
Berry adds that while men are often judged on potential, women are scrutinized based on performance. “Women unfortunately aren’t taken as seriously in crypto, and research tells us that they also ask less money when raising funds”, Berry says. Also, if a company focusses on solving problems for diverse or female communities, male investors probably have less interest, Berry says.
The report also found that if you’re a woman founder, in 78% of cases, you’re in a mixed team setup. But as a male founder, in 74% of the cases, you didn’t choose a mixed setup. And this predominantly male market doesn’t promote the involvement of women, says Apotheker. She says: “If you take the gaming and immersive gaming industry as a proxy of what the metaverse could become, the experiences offered in the metaverse will be very gender stereotypical, just like the content of most games — and that will prevent women from adopting these platforms.”
