Power Moves: Women, Capital & Generations of Impact
Every movement starts the same way—someone gets tired of waiting for permission. In the 1880s, women didn’t have the right to vote, but they had vision. When Wall Street shut them out, they launched the Women’s Stock Exchange—a place where women could trade, invest, and fund their own futures. No co-signers. No apologies.
More than a century later, the architecture has changed—but many of the barriers haven’t.
Opportunity still tilts toward the familiar. Risk still gets defined by what’s comfortable. And too often, women founders still have to prove not just the value of their ideas—but their right to be in the room.
⚡ The Numbers Tell the Story
Women now own nearly 40% of U.S. businesses, driving trillions in economic value. Yet female founders capture only 2% of venture capital funding . That’s not a gap—it’s a canyon. And it stands in the way of critical, often life-saving innovation. When capital allocation excludes women, it prevents new approaches to healthcare, fresh ideas for care delivery, and the development of innovative, life-changing technologies. Closing that canyon will take more than awareness—it will require restructuring how capital is allocated, and broadening the group of decision makers.
🚀 Where CIF Changes the Equation
At Catalytic Impact Foundation, we don’t fund trends—we fund change.
More than half of our portfolio companies are women-led, advancing technologies that expand health access and transform patient outcomes. Our founders aren’t waiting to be invited—they’re leading the labs, the boardrooms, and the breakthroughs:
Penelope Finnie, CEO of Egal, turned a simple question—why aren’t menstrual products as accessible as toilet paper?—into TIME’s Best Invention of 2025 and a Fast Company Innovation by Design finalist .
Claire Mazumdar, CEO of Bicara Therapeutics, is redefining cancer treatment and was named a Fierce Biotech Leadership Honoree for her bold scientific vision.
🌍 Why It Matters
Women-owned businesses already command major economic power: they contribute more than $2.2 trillion to GDP and employ roughly 9.4 million people. Yet when it comes to who controls the funding and who gets to define the solutions—especially in healthcare—the representation gap is striking with women holding fewer than 20% of senior investing roles at venture capital firms. And here’s the kicker: while female-founded startups receive only 2% of venture capital dollars, they generate more than twice the revenue per dollar of funding compared to their male-founded peers—$0.78 versus $0.31. In other words, when women get funded, they make the money work harder. What does that mean for healthcare innovation?
When capital flows primarily through narrow networks, we get narrow solutions—leaving vast gaps in care, research, and access.
At Catalytic Impact Foundation, we’re changing the equation.
We invest in founders who see what others miss—those driving innovation in areas such as maternal health, rare disease, and accessible care. Women-led companies, often overlooked by traditional funds, are proving to be high-impact, high-outcome ventures. And when they succeed, their outcomes power the next wave of innovation through our regenerative model. Because true progress isn’t measured by how many startup checks clear—it’s measured by how many lives they save or improve, how many underserved markets they transform, and how many systems they upend.
