Nov 4, 2019
Women still own way less startup equity than men
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Female entrepreneurs have less equity in their own companies than do male entrepreneurs, according to a new report from Carta.
Why it matters: This directly contributes to the gender wealth gap.
By the numbers:
- Women represent 13% of startup founders but own just 7% of founder equity.
- Women make up 34% of startup employees but hold just 20% of startup employee equity.
- Female employees are 31% of all equity owners, but hold just 6% of total startup equity.
- Women are only 20% of equity holders worth at least $1 million, 15% of those with $10 million or more, and only 12% of those with $100 million.
Between the lines: “What we hypothesize is that within founding teams, not everyone gets the same amount of equity,” Carta marketing chief Emily Kramer tells Axios.
- Other possible explanation include female founders selling bigger stakes to investors than do their male peers, and creating bigger employee options pools.
Women also are under-represented among startup employees with large equity grants.
- CEOs get more than twice as much equity as the next highest compensated executive, yet only 13% are women.
- In the C-suite, women are most represented among chief marketing officers (32%) but it’s the position with the lowest median equity.
- Junior and mid-level engineers receive more than twice as much equity as other employees, yet women only make up 20% of entry-level engineers and that percentage decreases with seniority.
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