The 2% Glass Ceiling: Why Female Founders Can't Break Through

$211 Billion Flowed Into AI. Women Got Crumbs.

That's how much venture capital poured into artificial intelligence companies in 2025 — half of all global VC funding. Yet female founders captured just 2% of total venture funding in the US, a figure that hasn't budged in years. For immigrant women founders, the numbers are even grimmer, though no one bothers to track them separately.

Sri Ramaswamy thought she was ready. Pitching her AI-powered insurance claims product Charlee.AI to Bay Area investors, she expected technical questions, growth projections, market analysis. Instead, she got: "Who else is on your team?" One funder was brutally direct: "If you had a white male CEO, you would get a check."

This isn't just about one founder's experience. It's about a $211 billion market being shaped by the same biases that have kept women on the sidelines for decades.

The Question Gap: What Men vs. Women Actually Hear

The disparity starts with the questions investors ask. Research by the Female Founder Collective reveals a stark pattern: men get asked about opportunities ("If we give you $5 million, where can you take this?"), while women get grilled about risks ("What if you fail?").

The numbers are damning:

• Women are interrupted 5x more during pitch meetings
• They receive 2x more questions about personal commitments and family
• They're routinely described as "cautious," "inexperienced," and "emotional"

Angela Lee, Columbia Business School professor and founder of 37 Angels, calls it "compounding bias." Immigrant women navigate sexism and racism simultaneously, layered with cultural gaps, accent bias, and limited access to elite US networks.

"For immigrant women, that bias shows up earlier and more often: in pitch meetings, partner discussions, and even informal feedback loops that determine who gets a second meeting," Lee explains.

The Network Effect: Who You Know Still Trumps What You Know

The venture capital industry runs on networks — specifically, Ivy League and elite tech school alumni networks. Indian men in the US tap into Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) connections; Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures is an IIT alum. Chinese male founders leverage similar pathways.

But these networks have historically excluded women. The stereotype that benefits Indian and Chinese men in tech — being "naturally skilled" in technology and finance — doesn't extend to women from the same countries.

Assel Seitova, founder of Sisters (a network for female founders from Central Asia), puts it bluntly: "Many founders need to first educate investors about where they come from before talking about what they are building."

Yet success stories are emerging. Kazakhstan's Zhanel Nugmanova co-founded biotech company Valinor, raising a $13 million seed round. Legal AI tool Alma, founded by women from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, secured $8 million last year.

California's Transparency Gambit

Starting April 2026, a new California law requires VC firms to disclose demographic data of their portfolio companies. Since over a third of US VC firms operate from California, this could force systemic change.

Erika Bahr, founder of AI data platform Daxe, sees promise: "Historically, investors have liked to invest in people that look like them. The challenge is getting more women funding women, and shifting the mindset around risk."

At Rittenhouse Ventures, about a third of investments go to women-led startups — well above industry average. But most VC firms still lack female partners, perpetuating the cycle.