More than a third of the world's women entrepreneurs have experienced gender bias when raising capital, with women in Hong Kong, mainland China and Singapore investing more of their own money to start a business, according to a report by HSBC Private Banking.
Women secure 5 per cent less capital on average globally, according to the "She's the Business" report, and 61 per cent of women surveyed said they had to pitch for capital in front of groups of investors solely made up of men or predominantly men.
"Over the last few years, we have undertaken substantial research into the journeys and motivations of entrepreneurs. Whilst entrepreneurship as a whole has been flourishing, we were disconcerted by the fact that still today, female entrepreneurs represent just 3 per cent of deal flow," Antonio Simoes, chief executive of HSBC Private Banking, said. "While the proportion of women-led start-ups continues to grow, female entrepreneurs are statistically still playing catch-up."
The report took data from an online survey of 1,202 entrepreneurs, including 604 women, and in-depth interviews with seven female entrepreneurs and six investors. They had to have secured or were in the process of securing at least £100,000 in outside capital. Entrepreneurs in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the United States were surveyed in June and July.
According to Pitchbook, companies solely founded by women only received 2.8 per cent of venture capital funding in the US through October 2, in a slight improvement from the 2.3 per cent in all of 2018. Companies co-founded by men and women have received 11.9 per cent of overall venture capital funding so far this year.
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Of the women entrepreneurs surveyed, 58 per cent said they were concerned about bias when raising capital, with the biggest concerns from women in Singapore and in the US, according to the HSBC report.
Women are most likely to be denied funding in Hong Kong, with 68 per cent said they were denied investment capital, and Singapore, where 59 per cent said they were unable to successfully win investments, according to the report. Women entrepreneurs were most likely to be successful in the US and France.
Of the women surveyed, 73 per cent felt bias could be overcome with the help of investors and 46 per cent said they believed they could overcome bias with mixed investor panels. Less than one in 10 of those surveyed said they picked investor panels made up of exclusively women or mostly women.