SAN FRANCISCO (March 13, 2018) — Greenlight Insights, the global leader in market intelligence for the virtual and augmented reality industry, released a new report today detailing the state of venture funding for woman-led XR companies. The report was co-authored with the WXR Venture Fund, a venture capital fund that promotes equal gender representation among VR/AR/XR startups.

2017 was another successful year for virtual and augmented reality technology companies raising venture capital. After analyzing more than 300 deals, the report finds that more than $1.9B was raised by XR startups, yet only 7.7% of all venture funding deals were of female CEOs. The number of deals for companies with a female CEO has increased over time, with 4.6% of deals for companies with a female CEO in 2016.

“XR startups continue to attract an impressive amount of venture funding,” Greenlight Insights Analyst Alexis Macklin said. “The share of deals of women-led VR and AR companies has consistently increased since 2013, but the low rate is striking. Fortunately, benchmarks like this report will be important for identifying, tracking, and solving structural problems.”  

"While it’s encouraging that women founders in the XR space receive a higher percentage of venture funding deals compared to female founders in general, it’s still less than 8%. That means that for every 10 funded entrepreneurs in the XR industry, less than 1 of them is a woman,” Malia Probst, founding partner at the WXR Fund, said. “These findings from Greenlight Insights highlight the statistically enormous challenge that female founders face when raising capital as well as positive traction in the XR industry that we at the WXR Fund are excited to build upon."

A complimentary infographic and downloadable white paper can be found online at: greenlihtinsights.com/women-xr

About Greenlight Insights

Greenlight Insights is the industry leader in business intelligence for the virtual and augmented reality global market. By maintaining the most comprehensive dataset on companies and consumer behavior, Greenlight Insights provides global technology companies, Fortune 500 brands, and innovative startups proprietary research and advice to make better strategic decisions about the New Experience Economy™. Visit www.greenlightinsights.com for more information and follow @AskGreenlight on Twitter.  

About Women In XR Venture Fund

WXR Venture Fund invests in startups in the VR/AR/MR industry that are committed to balanced gender representation. The WXR Fund also provides community infrastructure to support women leaders in immersive tech. Their investment thesis is rooted in both social and economic impact: the WXR fund aims to help build a more inclusive industry from the ground up as well as leverage the unique economic opportunity that current demographic imbalances create. Visit https://womenxr.com/ for more information.