Anu Duggal

The Venture Capitalist Betting Big on Women-Led Startups — and Winning

It took Anu Duggal 700 meetings before she secured enough capital to launch Female Founders Fund, a VC firm dedicated to early-stage investing in women-led startups. Duggal had co-founded and sold a luxury shopping platform called Exclusively, and she knew just how crucial cash could be for women founders, who receive less than 2% of venture capital. Her persistence paid off, not only for Duggal, but also for the women the firm has helped catapult to success. Female Founders Fund has led or co-led seed rounds in more than 50 companies, including women’s telehealth giant Maven Clinic (valued at $1.7 billion in 2024), wedding planning platform Zola (valued at $650 million in 2019), razor brand Billie (which was acquired by Edgewell in 2021 for $310 million), and restaurant marketing and commerce platform BentoBox (which was acquired by fintech giant Fiserv in 2021). Beyond funding, Duggal is dedicated to proving that women-led businesses are market leaders, not exceptions, by spotlighting their inspiring leaders on The Two Percent podcast.

By Audrey Goodson Kingo