In a sign of remarkable progress, the number of women-owned businesses in Singapore has more than doubled over the past 15 years.

Yet, beneath this surface-level success lies a sobering reality: In Singapore, early-stage funding for female entrepreneurs fell by 39 percent, and no late-stage deals were recorded for women-led startups last year, according to Tracxn. Across Southeast Asia, funding for women-led startups plunged from US$871.8 million in 2022 to just US$198 million in 2024 — a far steeper decline than that seen among male-founded businesses.

In other words, even as more women step forward to build companies, fewer are getting the financial backing they need to scale them.

What’s holding female founders back

As someone who has spent over a decade in fast-growing startups and scale-ups, I’ve had a front-row seat to the journeys of some of the region’s most successful founders. Now, as part of my work supporting tens of thousands of small business owners across Asia, I have a clear view of both the possibilities and the persistent barriers that women face when building and scaling their ventures.

It’s a theme that comes up consistently with female-led business owners around how different their experience of entrepreneurship is.

For one, systemic barriers continue to prevent women from moving into what has long been considered a male bastion – entrepreneurship – where masculine-coded qualities like risk-taking and bravado are celebrated and sought after.

Part of the problem also lies in who controls the capital. Women make up less than 20 percent of general partners in Asia’s venture capital firms, and research shows that firms with female partners are twice as likely to invest in female-founded startups. With fewer women at the decision-making table, promising founders often struggle to get their ideas funded.

Meanwhile, confidence gaps persist. Mastercard’s report on women entrepreneurs found that fear of failure and self-doubt remain obstacles to starting and sustaining a business, exacerbated by limited access to networks, mentors, and financial education.

Another major factor driving this disparity is motherhood and family. The caregiving penalty is well-documented, but the extent of its impact on women’s entrepreneurial journeys continues to surprise. New research has found that becoming a mother significantly reduces the likelihood of women starting a business. For those already running companies, motherhood often leads to declines in profits and jeopardizes long-term survival.

This is as true in Southeast Asia as it is anywhere else. New data from OCBC found that women-owned small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore experience about 30 percent lower sales turnover growth in their first three years compared to those owned by men, a gap that reflects how caregiving responsibilities, limited access to capital, and uneven support networks can slow even the most capable founders.

Levelling the playing field

With fewer role models and the odds stacked against them, only a deliberate and coordinated effort across investors, regulators, and financial innovators will close the gap.

Research consistently shows that when the playing field is even slightly level, women outperform. One Boston Consulting Group study found that for every dollar of funding, women-founded startups generated 78 cents in revenue. That’s more than twice the 31 cents generated by male-founded firms. Other analyses have shown that women-founded companies reach profitability faster and deliver higher returns on exit.

In my own network and as president of Singapore’s Fintech Association (SFA), I’ve seen plenty of women quietly and organically build thriving businesses. Many have grown their ventures through customer trust, community, and smart cash-flow management. Their stories rarely make the news, but collectively, they’re reinventing what “success” in entrepreneurship looks like.

If we paid closer attention to these results, the conversation around gender in entrepreneurship might shift entirely.

Redefining the metrics of success

To build a truly inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem, we need to re-examine not just how we fund women founders, but how we define success itself.

It starts with capital and visibility for Singapore’s growing community of female-focused investor networks and angel groups. When women investors back women founders, there is a powerful ripple: funding flows more equitably, and mentorship becomes part of the value chain, not an afterthought.

Then comes innovation. Beyond offering access, fintechs, banks, and investors have a pivotal role to play in closing the gap by intentionally designing products for those they serve. This means designing SME and startup solutions that recognize the realities of women founders and challenging the biases often embedded in them.

And finally, we must broaden what success means. Valuation and fundraising milestones have long dominated the startup narrative, but they’re far from the only measures of entrepreneurial strength. Resilience, profitability, and community impact should count just as much.

#WomenEntrepreneurs #GenderEquality #StartupFunding #InclusiveInnovation #FemaleLeadership