Only about 14 per cent of startups in Nigeria and other Sub-Saharan African countries have female founders, a survey by Startup Genome has shown.
This was below the global average of 15 per cent that the survey established.
The global policy advisory and research firm explained that it surveyed 5,469 respondents across 67 global ecosystems between September 2016 and November 2022.
It stated that while 31 per cent reported having at least one female founder, the overall average was 15 per cent.
It said, “Perhaps unsurprisingly, the results show that women remain in the minority among tech startup founders.
“Of the 5,469 respondents surveyed across 67 global ecosystems between September 2016 and November 2022, 31 per cent reported having at least one female founder. The overall average of female founders in an ecosystem (total number of female founders divided by the number of startup founders surveyed) is just 15 per cent.”
Across the regions, Oceania was reported as having the highest overall percentage of female founders at 21.6 per cent.
North America has the second highest, with 15.7 per cent and it was followed by Asia with 14.9 per cent.
“Sub-Saharan African respondents indicated an average of 14 per cent, with Cape Town the highest in the region at 15.3 per cent. MENA was the region with the lowest percentage of female founders at just 10 per cent,” the firm noted.
According to the firm, while this is just a snapshot of the global situation, it is fair to say that the tech startup ecosystem is a long way from gender equality.
The under-representation of women in the ecosystem manifests in reduced funding for women-led start-ups.
Meanwhile, a Briter Bridges’ deal flow revealed that between January 2013 and May 2021, every time female founders received $1, male founders received $25.
It said, “These numbers must be seen in the light of the lower number of female teams operating in this space. However, all-female founding teams still seem to be underfunded once the general underrepresentation of female founders is factored into the analysis.”
In 2022, female-founder start-ups in Africa raised only 22 per cent of all rounds, up 2 per cent from 2021, accounting for $644m or 13 per cent of the total equity funding, down 3 per cent from 2021 according to Partech’s ‘2022 Africa Tech Venture Capital’ report.
According to a survey by the global technology association ISACA, the pay gap between women and men, gender bias based on workplace roles, and a shortage of female role models in executive and leadership positions are the major barriers faced by women hoping to break into tech.
While speaking to The Aproko Vibes in an earlier interview, an investor at Techstar, Alisha Golden, noted that women are greatly under-represented in the global tech workforce, “which is not only an issue of an imbalanced global society but also a workforce problem, given the critical shortage of skilled tech professionals.”
She added, “More opportunities, including job exposure, training, boot camps, and career advancement programmes are needed in order to make long overdue progress in ensuring that women are more equitably represented in the tech workforce.”
A spokesperson for Ingressive Capital, a seed-stage VC, explained to The Aproko Vibes that organisations need to promote a more inclusive work culture and part with discriminatory work policies especially as it concerns equal opportunities for women such as policies around maternity leave, childcare policies, and benefits, to propel more women into the tech ecosystem.