When 2% is the ceiling: Why women entrepreneurs need money and more than just a seat at the table

We all hear about the gender pay gap, but do you know the most overlooked gender gap in the world? It’s not doing the dishes, or being a CEO or even climbing Mount Everest - it’s raising capital, a feat only around 2 per cent of female-founded companies achieve.

When I walked into the Canaccord Genuity Growth Conference this August to pitch The Stock Network, I knew these numbers before I saw the stage:

• In 2023, the World Economic Forum reported that women-founded startups made up just 2 per cent of venture capital (VC) funding in the US and Europe.
• PitchBook’s 2024 data showed that despite record capital being poured into US startups, female-only teams were still stuck at 2 per cent.
• In Australia, Cut Through Venture’s 2025 data is even starker: this year is tracking to be the lowest year on record for capital raised by female-only founders.

2 per cent. Let that soak in. More women by percentage win a Nobel Prize than get to raise money for their business. These numbers are not just statistics, they are lived barriers. They are the conversations in closed rooms that women don’t get invited into. They are the silent rejections that accumulate until the “no” feels inevitable. And that’s why this conference, and this program, mattered to me.

“This isn’t a gesture. It’s a strategy"

I was accepted as one of five female entrepreneurs globally last year by Canaccord Genuity (TSE:CF) to take part in the investment bank's advisory program, given five mentors for unlimited time and guided to prepare a pitch for The Stock Network in front of investors. 

When Liz Priestman, CEO and director of IDG, took the stage to open the Women Entrepreneurs Program panel in Boston, she asked a question that hung heavy in the room: “How many of those presentations will be made by women?”

A pause. The silence was the answer. Then she said something that cut through the noise of well-meaning diversity initiatives: “This program isn’t a gesture. It’s a strategy. It matches women founders with tailored mentorship, strategic advisory, and investor exposure, creating a clear pathway for growth and scalability.”

For me, being part of this cohort wasn’t about tokenism. It was about access. To the networks, mentors, and investors who usually remain behind a closed curtain but today were in the room. 

An intentional intervention to rewrite the numbers

This month in Boston, something shifted for me. I wasn’t alone on stage, not competing for the token spot, not apologising for being there, but stepping into a community built deliberately to accelerate us; not sideline us.

Liz said it best: “Five cohorts. Five years. Each adding momentum to a growing community of mentorship, shared knowledge and opportunity. A network that compounds with every new participant.” That’s exactly what I felt. The network effect in action.

Some might ask why women would need a separate program. Shouldn’t merit speak for itself? The answer is simple: capital raising is the number one gender inequality in the business world right now. When only 2 per cent of venture capital flows to women-founded businesses, it isn’t about merit. It’s about access. It’s about pattern recognition, investors backing the familiar, the comfortable, the founders who look like the ones they funded before.

That cycle doesn’t break without intentional intervention. And that’s what the Canaccord Genuity Advisory Program is, an intervention. A deliberate, strategic, long-term effort to rewrite the numbers.

Female founders are just the tip of the iceberg

Liz closed with a provocation that every investor in that room needed to hear: “If I were an investor sitting in this room, I would be thinking this: These six founders are just the tip of the iceberg. If I don’t start leaning into this network, I’ll be five years behind the next wave of market winners.”

"That’s not about optics. That’s about opportunity. We aren’t here because we’re women. We’re here because we’re building businesses that belong on this stage, in biotech, consumer goods, wellness, and digital finance."

What I took from this week wasn’t just visibility, it was validation; not the kind that comes from applause, but the kind that comes from connection; from meeting founders who understand the same uphill battle; from advisors who aren’t just checking a box, but rolling up their sleeves; from investors who looked at us not as exceptions, but as serious players.

I left with the conviction that this can’t stop here.

Breaking the cycle, not just the ceiling

Right now, women-led companies are underfunded not because they lack vision, but because the system is stacked. Programs like this don’t fix everything. But they create cracks in the ceiling where sunlight gets in. The facts are simple:

• If women continue to receive 2 per cent of venture capital, we will continue to waste 98 per cent of untapped potential.
• If investors lean into this network now, they won’t just be part of change, they’ll be part of the next wave of market winners.

For me, the week in Boston was more than a conference. It was proof that when you create the right conditions, community, mentorship, access, women don’t just participate, we excel. This time around it’s not just about getting a seat, it’s about getting the funds to scale companies, hire teams, enter markets, and deliver the next wave of global innovation.

Because capital in the right hands doesn’t just change balance sheets, it changes the balance of power.

Applications for 2026 are now open - head to Canaccord Genuity to learn more: https://www.canaccordgenuity.com/women-entrepreneurs/apply-to-the-program