Trish Costello, founder and CEO of Portfolia, has created a women-focused investment platform that drives health care innovations aimed at improving women’s lives. Portfolia is among the first venture firms in the U.S. to emphasize women’s health. Ms.
Costello began her career as part of a small team that founded the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership in Kansas City in 1994. She also led a training program for leaders in venture capital for many years. Despite the dominance of men in the venture capital sector, Ms.
Costello recognized the overlooked market potential in women’s health, such as issues related to infertility and menopause. In recent years, Portfolia has established 14 funds that invest in companies targeting a largely female market, with categories ranging from active aging to longevity and femtech. Notably, 90 percent of its investors are women.
The firm has made 185 investments valued at over $65 million in 118 companies, nearly 70 percent of which are women-led ventures. Growing up in rural Kansas, Ms. Costello was encouraged from a young age to see needs as opportunities.
Reflecting on her career trajectory, she said, “There isn’t a time I can remember when I didn’t believe that if I came up with a good idea, I could make it happen.”
When asked about her focus on startup investment, especially in women’s health companies, Ms. Costello explained, “Startup investing is about identifying the most promising opportunities and getting the right backing at the right time. I saw the emerging market for women’s health, which many others overlooked.
Back then, discussions about women’s health were rare, but I saw enormous potential in these markets where women were key customers, influencers, and entrepreneurs.”
Through Portfolia, Trish Costello continues to channel financial resources into innovative companies, harnessing the power of women investors to create significant impacts in women’s health and beyond. Women-led companies continue to face significant challenges in the U.S. venture capital (VC) ecosystem. In 2024, women founders and investors raised $38.8 billion in the U.S., a 27% increase from the previous year.
However, the number of transactions involving women founders decreased by 13.1%, indicating a growing concentration of deal activity among a smaller set of companies. Despite the increase in capital raised, female founders saw a reduction in their share of total U.S. VC funding. In 2024, they were involved in 25.1% of all deals, down from 26.4% in 2023.
The portion of total VC deal value they captured also fell to 19.9% from 20.8% the previous year. Female-only teams fared even worse, accounting for just 2% of overall VC in 2024. Companies with mixed-gender founder teams had better luck securing funding compared to those with all-female founders, highlighting a significant disparity in the ecosystem.
In the gaming sector, the situation is particularly dire. Game companies with at least one female founder raised around $229.36 million across 38 deals in 2024, compared to $3.3 billion raised by all 313 game companies. This means that mixed-gender game companies received only 6.96% of total game deal funding.
All-female game startups were in an even worse position: only three companies raised a total of $11.62 million in 2024, a stark decline from 20 companies raising $41.87 million in 2023. The report also highlighted the potential impact of shifting sociopolitical tides. Recent actions against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives could narrow entry points for underrepresented founders, at least until legal precedents are established.
These changes may pose new challenges for female founders seeking capital.
Costello’s role in women-focused investing
Despite these hurdles, there were some positive signs.
Gains were made in later-stage funding rounds, particularly in select software and healthcare subsectors. Thirteen female-founded companies achieved unicorn status, reaching valuations of over $1 billion. Additionally, female founders secured a record 24.3% of total US VC exit counts, suggesting increased investor confidence in female-led startups.
Analysts note that while there is some progress, much remains to be done to achieve a more equitable distribution of VC funding. Lisa Wu, a partner at Norwest Venture Partners, emphasized the role of investors in reversing current trends. “As investors, we have the power to actively seek out and invest in female-led companies and by hiring more female investors,” she said.
The 2024 U.S. VC landscape for female founders shows both progress and persistent challenges. While certain sectors and stages of funding show promise, overall distributions and deal volumes indicate a need for continued focus on equity and inclusion within the venture capital ecosystem. The venture investment landscape has seen a significant shift in 2024, with funding for startups experiencing a decline overall.
Interestingly, this decline has impacted both male and female-led startups almost equally. However, women have notably out-raised men in the burgeoning field of Deep Tech, according to a new report released this week in London by the European venture platform Female Foundry. Venture investment in startups founded by women in Europe dropped by 12% in 2024 compared to the previous year, closely mirroring the 11% decrease in overall venture investment.
Yet, the report reveals a silver lining: women who are founding deep tech startups are raising more capital compared to their male counterparts. The report attributes this trend to the increasing number of female founders in deep tech, a sector closely connected to academia where women are more equally represented. Approximately 33% of all venture capital raised by female entrepreneurs in Europe is funneled into deep tech startups, which is 2% higher than gender-agnostic startups.
Key areas of innovation attracting these investments include synthetic biology, generative AI, and drug development. The report, which surveyed over 1,200 female founders, investors, and executives across 20 European countries, notes that startups with at least one female co-founder were considered, significantly broadening the scope of their findings compared to previous studies focusing solely on all-women founding teams. Agata Nowicka, the founder of Female Foundry and the author of the report, explained the motivation behind the broader metrics.
“I started the index because the oft-quoted 2% figure about female-founded startups is not detailed enough. As an entrepreneur who had a male co-founder, I wouldn’t have been included in that stat. We need to consider far more diverse metrics,” she said.
Nowicka also observed that the COVID-19 pandemic helped level the playing field for women in tech by making the industry more accessible. “The venture capital industry transformed during COVID because of the boom in investment during 2021-2022. VC became more accessible to women as it became more competitive and diversified,” she noted.
Here are a few key insights from the report:
– Female-founded businesses in Europe raised €5.76 billion in 2024, a 12% drop from €6.56 billion in 2023. – The health, fintech, and food sectors saw the most venture investment directed to female-founded startups. – Female founders have the most success at the seed stage, with round sizes increasing by 7% across stages compared to 2023.
– Over 80% of the 50 largest funding rounds for female-founded startups in 2024 went to those in scientific fields such as synthetic biology (€282.4 million), generative AI (€221.8 million), and drug development (€169.9 million). – The U.K., France, and Germany lead in investment in female-founded companies, while Finland and Denmark have the highest proportion of venture capital allocated to such startups. Despite the overall decline in venture investment, female founders, particularly in deep tech, have managed to carve out a promising path, signaling that a more equitable landscape may be on the horizon.
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