Women-led tech startups’ funding drops 25% in 2024, says Tracxn report

Tech startups co-founded by women garnered just $1 billion in funding in 2024, marking a 25 percent decrease year-on-year (Y-o-Y), as detailed in a report published by the market intelligence platform Tracxn ahead of International Women’s Day on March 8.

The document named ‘Women-led Startups in India Report 2025’ emphasizes significant trends in financing, industry expansion, unicorn developments, and worldwide standing.

India boasts more than 7,000 active startups led by women, making up 7.5 percent of all active startups nationwide. In the technology sector, startups founded by women have raised a total of $26.4 billion so far, with 2021 being the year with the highest funding at $6.3 billion.

Worldwide, 2022 recorded the largest funding share from Indian startups at 15.18 percent. In that year, startups led by women in India secured $5 billion, while the global total was $32.8 billion. In 2024, India secured the third position worldwide for funding obtained by startups co-led by women, following the US and the UK, representing 3.96 percent of global funding raised by women-led startups.

The retail industry leads significantly with funding obtained by women-led startups, amassing $7.8 billion in total investments, trailed by ed-tech at $5.4 billion and enterprise applications at $5 billion.

Bengaluru tops the list for women-led startups and the overall funding raised so far, with Mumbai and Delhi NCR trailing behind. The journey of women-led unicorns in India has seen ups and downs, highlighted by a spike in 2021 with 8 new unicorns and consistent growth in 2019 (3), 2020 (4), and 2022 (5). Nonetheless, 2017, 2023, and 2024 experienced no fresh unicorns, suggesting inconsistent momentum.

The peak number of purchases of startups led by women was noted at 45 in 2021. This figure dropped by 20 percent to 36 in 2022, and then fell by 30.5 percent to 25 in 2023.