Gendered Disparities in Funding for Non-Profit, Hybrid, and for-Profit Start-Ups

This study addresses a scholarship need to use more gender-conscious, structuration theory to explore the investment funding ecosystem on start-up social enterprises. The paper examines gendered disparities in start-up equity funding available to non-profit, for-profit, and hybrid social ventures, and amongst ventures with and without invention-based technologies. Analysis consists of 17,440 start-up ventures that applied to the Global Accelerator Learning Initiative (GALI) between 2013 and 2019, and quantitatively tests three hypotheses. These hypotheses suggest differences across (1) the gender composition of founder teams and venture type; (2) equity funding available by gender and across venture types; and (3) gendered differences between invention-based ventures. The findings are analysed from the lens of structuration theory, recognising both individual and structural level barriers to equity. We conclude by discussing implications for overcoming structural-based gender differences in areas such as public policy, the education system, scholarship, and professional associations.