Adapted from Carta; Chart: Andrew Witherspoon/Axios
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.
