When Kathryn Schifferle started Work Truck Solutions, a company that provides the commercial vehicle industry with inventory management, she had some of her own money and quickly raised about $400,000 from family and friends. But when she went out looking for "real money" from venture capitalists, she tells me, "I had three things going against me." She was in a rural market in Northern California. It was 2012; apps were all the rage, and she was focused on commercial trucking. "And then, of course, I was a woman, which was really the toughest part."

There's a growing cohort of female entrepreneurs who are receiving capital from angel investors. In 2023, women made up about 47% of angel investors, jumping rapidly from about 40% in 2022 and 34% in 2021, according to data from the Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire. Similarly, women-owned companies accounted for some 46% of firms seeking angel capital, growing from 37% in 2022 and 29% in 2021. The number of women receiving capital is high; nearly 29% of women who sought angel capital in 2023 found an investor, compared with the overall success rate of 24%.