Twenty-one percent of venture capital employees worldwide are women, but only 11% of senior positions are held by women, according to Preqin data released Wednesday.
Women represent 29% of midlevel positions and 36% of junior positions.
Venture capital firms in North America have a few more women in senior positions, 13%, compared to 9% in Europe.
Only 6% of board members of venture capital-backed companies are female. Cindy Padnos, founder and managing partner of venture capital firm Illuminate Ventures, is the most active venture capital-backed company board member, serving on 11 boards. Vani Kola, a managing director at Kalaari Capital, and Hilary Gosher, a managing director at Insight Venture Partners, each sit on 10 boards.
So far this year, female partners led 307 deals worth a combined $5.1 billion in transaction value, amounting to 9% of the venture capital deals in 2017. By comparison, women led 7.2% of all venture capital deals in all of 2016 — 224 transactions with a combined $2.9 billion of deal value, and 6.7% of venture capital deals in 2015 — 190 deals worth a total of $2.9 billion.
At the same time, the number of women-owned firms are raising larger funds. Thirteen funds of women-owned venture capital firms raised a total $2.4 billion as of this year through Oct. 31, up from 12 funds raising a combined $800 million in 2013. There are currently 58 women-owned venture capital funds in market, seeking a combined $6 billion. The largest is Baidu Capital; the firm's latest fund has a $2.95 billion target.
