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Fundings of female-founded startups rose in South Florida last year. Who raised the most and what are the trends?

Nancy Dahlberg
Nancy Dahlberg
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By Nancy Dahlberg

Funding rounds in female-founded companies in South Florida rebounded in 2024. That’s the good news, and there’s more: It was the third-highest year on record, after 2021 and 2022. However, by percentage share, female fundings in the region only slightly exceed the national findings, which continue to be dismal. Let’s look at the national trends first and then see where the Miami-Fort Lauderdale metro area stands, as well as South Florida’s top deals.

What’s the national picture?

In the US, female founders collectively raised nearly $38.8 billion in 2024, according to Pitchbook’s recently released 2024 US All In report that highlights the evolving landscape for female founders in the VC ecosystem. Despite progress in overall funding levels, female-founded companies continue to face systemic challenges in securing investment. While the funding growth was 27% higher than 2023, deal count dropped 13.1%, concentrating capital in fewer startups.

What’s more, the share of funding awarded to women dropped year-over-year. Nationally, female-founded companies raised 19.9% of the venture capital in 2024, a trend that dipped slightly from 2023 and is up from about 15% a decade ago. By deal count, female-founded startups raised 25.5% of the deals, also down slightly in 2023 but up from a decade ago. (Note that Pitchbook defines female-founded startups as startups with at least one female co-founder. She may or may not be the CEO and doesn’t have to be currently active in the startup.)

However, companies a started solely by women in the US raised just 2% of the venture capital, a figure that has barely increased since 2008.

Consider this: All-female teams raised a total of $3.7 billion (across 813 deals) while all-male teams raised $154 billion (9,340 deals), according to the Pitchbook report.

Another important finding in the report was that more female-founded companies reached venture-growth stages last year, although valuation disparities with male-founded companies widened.

Nationally, 13 new female-founded unicorns emerged in 2024, joining Anthropic, Scale AI, Deel, Flexport and others. The valuation of female-founded unicorns was up 15% year-over-year, the report said. There was also stronger exit activity among female-founded companies in 2024: They secured a record 24.3% share of total US VC exit count.

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What’s the local picture?

South Florida startups with at least one woman founder secured $577 million (across 85 deals) from investors in 2024, according to Pitchbook data. That’s up 270% compared to 2023, when female-founded startups secured just $156 million (72 deals), but down from the peak years of 2021 and 2022, when they raised about $800 million each year. In the Miami-area, startups with by all-women founders raised $145 million of that $577 million pie.

Seed-stage startups with female founders accounted for 41 of the 85 deals and collectively attracted $112 million 2024. Startups that raised Series A rounds secured $123 million over 21 deals and later-stage startups (Series B and higher) raised $342 million over 23 deals, according to Pitchbook’s data.

Collectively, these startups accounted for 21% of what South Florida startups raised in total, according to my research, and by deal count, 23.7%. What’s more, all-female startups in the Miami metro accounted for 5% of the total, a larger share than the national trend.

Here’s a look at South Florida fundings of female-founded startups through the years. Source: Pitchbook

Who got funded in South Florida?

Here are the top female-founded startup fundings in 2024, according to Pitchbook’s data. At least one founder is female and they are not necessarily the CEO; they may not even be currently active in the startup.

  1. Finally, a Miami-based startup with a financial platform for businesses, raised $200 million in equity & debt.
  2. NovoPayment, a Miami-based financial services startup, raised $40 million.
  3. Passes, a Miami-based startup with a platform for creators raised $40 million (and also sercured another $17 million a few months later.)
  4. Unrivaled Basketball, a Miami creator of a female basketball league, raised $28 million
  5. HealthSnap, the Miami-based healthtech for remote patient monitoring, raised $25 million
  6. Carewell, the Miami-based startup that created a marketplace for caregivers, $24.7 million
  7. Gorgie, a Boca Raton-based energy drink startup, raised $19.8 million
  8. Max Retail, the retail productivity software startup based in West Palm Beach, raised $15 million.
  9. BeMe Health, a healthtech focused on teens and based in Surfside, raised $14 million.
  10. Influur, the Miami-based influencer marketing startup founded by four women, raised $10 million.  

What about the numbers of female funders?

Increasing the female representation of check-writing roles in VC firms can create more opportunities for women founders because female investors can identify and back startups that may otherwise not be considered, the US ALL IN report said. However the data indicates that just 17.3% of the partners, principals and managing directors at VC firms with $50 million or more in assets under management across the country are female. That percentage is 19.5% for smaller US VC firms. The share of larger VC firms with a majority of female partners is just 8.3%; for smaller VC firms, it’s 13.8%. The report also found that the number of active angel investors who are women has been falling since the high of 2021.

San Francisco-based nonprofit All Raise notes that gains have been made in the US. It’s data shows that in 2018, just 9% of people working in venture capital at partner level and above were women and by late 2024 that had risen to 17%. Still, said All Raise CEO Paige Hendrix Buckner in a story in the Financial Times, “not every VC firm has a clear path to promotion – and a path to promotion is not always possible.”

Katelin Holloway, a founding partner at VC firm Seven Seven Six, said the result of such disparities means entire categories of innovation such as in women’s health, caregiving and female-focused consumer products can be overlooked. “These are massive markets that were underfunded for decades because the people controlling capital didn’t personally experience the pain points,” she told FT.

Download the US ALL IN report by Pitchbook here.

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