Women-led startups get only a drop of the pool of investment dollars out there, and Microsoft wants to change that.
The company’s venture capital arm, M12, unveiled a new startup competition today that will award a total of $4 million to two women-led startups. The Female Founders Competition will be open for applications until Sept. 30 for startups in North America, Europe and Israel. M12 and fellow VC partners in the event EQT Ventures and SVB Financial Group will pick 10 finalists to pitch their ideas.
Peggy Johnson, Microsoft’s executive vice president of business development, oversees strategic investments for M12. She told GeekWire in an interview that the competition aims to narrow a huge gap in investment in startups founded by women. Recent data shows that less than 3 percent of venture capital dollars went to all-women founding teams last year.
Johnson says M12 has a very diverse make up, but that trend doesn’t translate to M12’s own portfolio, with startups founded by women representing only 7.5 percent of investments. Johnson hopes the competition puts more of a spotlight on female founders and also helps M12 invest in more diverse companies as well.
www.geekwire.com
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