The power of women investing in women-owned businesses

Last week saw some interesting new research findings released by the Kauffman Foundation, which specializes in undertaking and publishing research on entrepreneurship. The foundation analyzed studies on investors done by universities and other institutions. It appears that the number of women who invest in small businesses is growing, and so is the number of companies led by women that receive funding. In addition, the percentage of women who are angel investors has also increased from about 5 percent in 2004 to about 25 percent last year, according to new findings from the Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire. Angel investors are people or groups who invest in very young or very small companies. Studies of venture capital firms by professors at Babson College show they’re doing more investing in companies founded by women or that have women executives, withmore than 15 percent of companies receiving venture capital between 2011 and 2013 having women executives. That’s up from less than 5 percent in the 1990s and 2000s. So, it appears there has never been a better time to be a woman entrepreneur looking to find the right kind of investment from a new network of women angels and VCs around the globe.