While 2025 saw headline improvement in capital share for female startup founders, the latest data shows a lack of broad-based progress for women.
Released on Tuesday, the gender equity section of the 2025 State of Startup Funding report reveals that startups with at least one female founder captured 24 per cent of total capital this year, which is a sharp rebound from 15 per cent in 2024 and the strongest result since 2019.
However, broader participation across the ecosystem paints a different picture, with a limited group of female- and mixed-gender teams accounted for most of the capital raised by women-led startups. Data shows the share of total deals involving women founders fell from an all-time high of 28 per cent in 2024 to 24 per cent in 2025.
All-female teams remain marginal in both deal participation and capital outcomes, accounting for just 8 per cent of deals and 2 per cent of total capital in 2025.
Female and mixed-gender teams appear most frequently at the Pre-Seed and Seed stages, whereas their presence drops sharply at Series A and Series B+ rounds.
The impact compounds over time, as median deal sizes are consistently lower for female-only startups and smaller early rounds slow hiring, delaying milestones and weakening later fundraising narratives.
The top five female-founded startups accounted for 79 per cent of all capital raised by female-founded teams in 2025, with the remaining 87 startups collectively raising just $257 million.
This disparity in broad equity progress is highlighted in headline capital gains, such as Airwallex, which closed two major funding rounds with a woman founder on the team.
Despite stronger headline investment outcomes in 2025, founder sentiment deteriorated, according to the State of Australian Startup Funding survey. Only 18 per cent of surveyed female founders felt supported by their investors, and just 27 per cent felt supported by the wider ecosystem.
Female founders were also significantly more likely than male founders to believe gender affected their ability to raise capital.
When it comes to the need for change, data shows that if Australia wants to compete on the global stage for innovation, backing women founders is essential.
In the 2022 Deloitte Access Economics report, it was revealed that when women founders were backed, participants were nearly 40 per cent more likely to access international markets, raised four times as much capital, and grew revenue nearly four times faster.
“I like making money, so I invest in companies with at least one woman in the leadership team,” said Lacey Filipich, Founder and Director of Money School, in the latest State of Startup Funding report.
“The more diversity, the better, because the most gender-diverse teams are 39 per cent more likely to financially outperform than non-gender-diverse teams. Who wouldn’t take that bet?”