In 2024, Women in 2024 were only 0.11 percent of the game VC Deal value, worse compared to 0.18% in 2023, as a report from a report showed Pitchbook.
Women always had a low representation among the financed technology startups. In the game industry, however, it is far worse if it is the female representation for financed startups. I will tell you more about the numbers and then talk about the reactions of founders and women.
Founders in game companies received an estimated 215.7 million US dollar at Deals in 2024, compared to $ 163.2 million in the deal value in 2023. The founders of female founders were 0.26% of the total contract number for game starts in 2024 compared to 0.56% in 2023.
“It is not a shock that there are so few founders in games who successfully increase risk capital – there are not so many at first. Many founders come from executive functions at large gaming companies that were historically mostly male (about 85% in a study 2020), ”said Amy Wu, partner at Menlo Ventures, in a message to Gamesbeat.
This topic gets more attention. Many women recently took part in a “2%” campaign, in which they pointed out that the founders only received 2% of risk capital financing. Shelby Moledina, a long -time game developer, recently made a satirical film. Retirement faceHow difficult it is for women to increase risk capital for a startup. She showed it at our last Gamesbeat event in 2024 and got a strong reaction.
But there is a disadvantage because the Trump government works in various environments in the government to make diversity, justice and inclusion (dei) illegal, and this could affect the efforts to collect more money for guided companies of women.
There are also Signs of bias With regard to the types of questions, women are asked when applying money, compared to the questions that men are asked.
Charmaine Duff, head of women, said in a message to Gamesbeat: “I think at this point in history when the climate for games is so turbulent that Dei is dismantled and women have to do with so much adversity, we will only worsen teams.”
Duff said she wished she could be optimistic.
“But I say that women who start the indie studios after they have been released,” said Duff. “You can already see it with large AAA studios that withdraw and put them off. I also see a lot of people who were excited to sponsor things like WLG or LAGs or other diverse exhibitions or initiatives that withdraw from support. There is a lot of uncertainty and fear, and the first teams that will be affected are managed by women and colored people. “
Tina Merry, co -founder at Simply Sweet Games, said in a message: “This article shows a continuing funding gap for female founders, especially when playing. Yes, not all bad news is and there are some positive long -term trends, but as a foundation for women and a studio that is actively looking for financial resources, it is particularly exciting for us to see the trends backwards in 2024. “
She added: “The financing of women of women is not a charity organization-es is an *intelligent business decision. Studies show that entrepreneurs often carry out their male colleagues. We also find that women make up a significant part of the gaming audience, which represents a large and often overlooked population group that is simply on the mission to speak to sweet games. ”
And she said: “It is time for investors to support teams like ours, not only because it is the right one, but because it is the profitable.”
Terry Redfield, co -founder of Wicked Fox gamesSaid in a message to Gamesbeat: “I feel the 2%, because although I was told that I was the first woman to collect over $ 1 million in 2015, and my family tree has improved significantly since then. But today I meet the same friction to increase it today as it was then. I am always told, but it’s a difficult time to lift. However, women managed are still the same ratio as before the current market challenges. “
She added: “I think this figure amounts to the current pool of investors who are mostly men. They try to minimize the risk as far as possible, and that means investing in what they know. A women -LED studio will need that scaled and successfully break into the form and can alleviate the tendency. However, this is a chicken and egg problem without seeds to do this. However, this is my goal for evil fox. “
There are Research that shows that women generally do better than men at startups.
“When I grew up, I was often the only girl in the group because most of my players were boys. Now, as an investor, it is not a surprise to see that so few founders in games successfully increase the risk capital -only 0.11% of the overall venture capital -value of the game in 2024 -because there is not many at the beginning, ”said Ernestine Fu Mak, managing partner of Brave Capital, in a message in Gamesbeat.
In the meantime, Griffin Gaming Partners has more than $ 1 billion in management and has focused on women’s startups from the start.
“Startups founded or co-founded by women achieve 2.5 times more sales per dollar than from men (BCG 2018),” said Emily Wang, partner and COO, Griffin Gaming Partners, in a message to Gamesbeat. “But VCS ask male founders more about potential for profits and female founders more about losses and time for donations (HBR 2017). In every phase of the pipeline, the industry has a gap to bridges and prejudices to unlearn it – both for ethics and for the economy. ”
Another risk capital provider, Eian Reisel, co -founder of VGAMES, said in a message to Gamesbeat: “We at VGAMES do everything to advertise female LED studios. It makes up around 10% of the possibilities from the deal flow, while conversion into investments is difficult. This worries me, especially because of the fact that it does not match the data of the gender game game at all. We try to promote women in the industry in many ways. I think one of the main points is the lack of executives in female leadership in Gaming companies. Many of our founders came from school before they started their own, and I believe that this will dramatically increase the percentages over time. “
Both Women in Games International (Wigi) has on GDC annual network event in connection with the Game Developers Conference in March and in connection with Women guided games A pre-GDC show case recently.
Perrin Kaplan, founder of the Zebra Partners Public Relations, said in a message to Gamesbeat: “I see Sunshine of growth rays for female managers in leading companies or the inclusion of funds. I long for the day it is an even field, and I hope it will be soon. As a founder myself, I was brought up to shoot the stars, and most of us only know that. “
Not everyone wants to talk about this topic. I asked an experienced woman entrepreneur what she was thinking about. She said she collected money and would prefer not to stab this bear.
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