Study- Women attract less venture capital than men

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Women-owned businesses only get about 4 percent to 9 percent of available venture capital, despite women leading 28 percent of U.S. businesses in 2002, according to a new study.

And the venture funds making the investments often have a woman partner in their ranks, the study by the Kansas City-based Kauffman Foundation shows.

The study, released Friday, examined why women attract less venture capital than their male counterparts.

Researchers found a strong link between the relatively small number of women in the venture capital industry and the dearth of women-run firms receiving venture investments.

The firms with ranking women did not seek out deals with women, said Myra Hart, a Harvard University professor involved in the research project.

But those firms did have more women-owned businesses present deals to them and were more likely to do deals with those firms.

But women are not well-represented in venture capital firms, according to the report.

The research, which looked at venture firms in 1995 and 2000, shows the number of women in the management of those firms has declined.

The study found that women represented 10 percent of management-track venture capitalists in 1995, compared with 9 percent in 2000. Only 27 percent of venture capital partnerships had women in management in 1995, compared with 25 percent of firms in 2000.

Researchers also reported that 64 percent of women who had been in venture firms in 1995 had left the industry by 2000, but just 33 percent of men left in the same period.

Carl Schramm, president and CEO of the Kauffman Foundation, said the study should alert policy-makers to the trend.

Venture capital firms "are private businesses at one level," Schramm said. "But on a second level, it's an issue of thinking about where the SBA (Small Business Administration) could create special loan programs for women."

Policy-makers also should look for alternatives to get capital to women-owned businesses, as well as developing training programs to encourage women to enter the banking and venture capital fields, Schramm said.

"These findings are surprising and disappointing -- if not alarming," he said.