Despite increased financial power and wealth, high net worth women represent a largely untapped source of capital for start-up entrepreneurs, according to a report released at the Kauffman Foundation-sponsored North American Summit of the Angel Capital Education Foundation (ACEF).
The report, Women and Angel Investing: An Untapped Pool of Equity for Entrepreneurs, provides insights and recommendations from leading women angels on how to grow the pool of early stage equity by encouraging more women to be angels.
Of the estimated 225,000 active angels who invested $23.1 billion in nearly 50,000 entrepreneurial deals in 2005, no more than eight percent are female, as estimated by several reports.
The report notes that the total number of women angel investors is smaller than women's collective wealth, education, and experience suggests is possible and calls the shortage of women angels "as a missed opportunity for women, for the entrepreneurial community, and U.S. competitiveness as a whole."
The report - which summarizes the comments of twelve leading women angels during a day-long roundtable - addresses the factors that influence women to become angel investors as well as the dynamics that may inhibit women's participation. The report also suggests actions and initiatives to inform and attract more qualified women to join angel groups, the most prominent trend in angel investing.
