Latina and Black Women Founders Have Raised Nearly $10B To Date, Finds Report

The nonprofit social startup digitalundivided has released its latest Project Diane report unveiling the experiences of Latina and Black women tech entrepreneurs.

Catalyzing Latina and Black women’s growth

Founded in 2012, the Newark-based startup leverages data, programs, and advocacy to catalyze economic growth for Latina and Black women founders at all stages of their entrepreneurial and funding journeys. 

In 2016, digitalundivided launched the Project Diane Report, the first biennial demographic study that captures the experiences of Latina and Black women tech founders.

“Building on the legacy of women like Diane Nash who worked to disrupt systemic barriers, digitalundivided is working to dismantle disparate systems that make access to economic equality for Latina and Black women difficult,”  Brittany S. Hale, Interim CEO and COO of digitalundivided, said in a statement.

“Through Project Diane, we’ve been able to bring awareness to the myriad of challenges Latina and Black women founders face while also spotlighting their growth, strengths, passion, and perseverance to scale their companies.

Key findings

The newly released 2022 report shed light on the entrepreneurial experiences of more than 750 Latina and Black women startup founders.

The report revealed that Latina and Black women founders have raised almost $10 billion in VC funding to date, with over 350 Latina and Black women founders raising over $1 million.

While Latina and Black women’s share of VC funding dipped in 2022, the report found it was still the second-biggest year in terms of overall funding – superseded by 2021, where Latina and Black women received more than 1% of total venture capital for the first time.

Read: Mandy Price Joins Handful Of Black Women Founders To Raise Over $10M

Unsurprisingly, women of color continued to report challenges raising funds for their startups and reported feeling undervalued by investors. Still, they reported persevering to fill knowledge gaps, build a network and find investors that shared their values.

“With Project Diane 2022, we’re providing updates to some of the critical statistics we revealed in previous reports and extending our research to explore more in-depth insight drawing from direct experiences from Latina and Black women founders,” Danielle Jackson, digitalundivided’s Senior Director of Research, Evaluation, and Data.

The hope is that these research findings will continue to inform conversations around eliminating barriers facing Latina and Black women entrepreneurs and foster a more equitable tech ecosystem for all.