Featured image courtesy of the Invest in Women Taskforce
Female-focused VC funds are piling up this year as women-founded startups pull in more capital.
On Sep. 1, Berlin-based investor Auxxo closed its second Female Catalyst Fund at €33.3 million (around $38.7 million) to back pre-seed and seed female-founded startups. The vehicle, which is one of the largest direct funds dedicated to female founders in Europe, follows several fund launches and closes in the space this year.
In May, Arāya Sie Fund, a joint venture between London-based VC Arāya Ventures and accelerator Sie Ventures, secured £7.5 million (around $10 million) in its first close. Around a month earlier, the Women Backing Women fund, a fund-of-funds managed by Bootstrap4F and created by the UK’s Invest in Women Taskforce, raised £130 million in its first close.
In April, Copenhagen-based Unconventional Ventures announced the second close of its Fund II, which targets diverse founders, including women.
This new wave of female-focused vehicles comes amid a funding surge.
Deal value currently stands at €9.7 billion this year, according to PitchBook’s European VC female founders dashboard, almost reaching 2025’s annual total. At the current pace, 2026 is tracking to be the third-highest year for female founders in terms of capital. Mirroring the wider European market, deal count is set to fall short of 2025’s figure.
Funding for female founders is increasingly leaning into deep-tech areas, such as semiconductors, robotics and quantum. In June, French quantum computing startup Quobly raised a €115 million Series A, while Barcelona-based AI robotics company Theker secured an $85 million Series A.
AI is another standout area. London-based AI video startup Synthesia raised its $200 million Series E in January at a $4 billion valuation. UK-based AI infrastructure company Volta announced in August that it had raised $300 million via a seed round and a Series A, valuing the company at $2.4 billion.
While more capital is heading into female-founded startups, their share of overall investment remains small. All-female founding teams accounted for just 1% of deal value this year, down from 1.3% in 2025. Mixed teams have seen a modest bump to 16.3% from 15% in 2025, but are still below previous years’ levels.
This article originally appeared on PitchBook News