As 2019 came to a close, Pitchbook presented some deceptive data: VCs had invested a record high $17.2 billion in US-based startups with at least one female founder. While impressive upon first glance, look at these numbers from a different perspective: US-based startups that were founded solely by females only made up 6.7% of all VC deals and 2.7% by total capital invested. These percentages are all-time highs, but still very low compared to their male counterparts. And, what do the numbers look like for female academic founders? What can universities do to foster more female entrepreneurship?

Join OUP for a webinar where we will discuss the state of female academic entrepreneurship across OUP’s partner institutions, and the greater university startup ecosystem. Stephanie Stehman of OUP will review an updated analysis of her 2017 blog post on the gender gap in academia, as well as discuss the various efforts universities have made to support women bringing their ideas and discoveries from the lab to the marketplace. One of these efforts is Equalize 2020, a symposium and pitch competition presented by Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) and designed to take national action around the disparity of women academic inventors forming university startups. Joining the webinar to discuss Equalize will be:

• Nichole Mercier, Assistant Vice Chancellor and Managing Director of the Office of Technology Management at WUSTL
• Kacey Marra, Founder & CEO of AxoMax Technologies; Professor in Departments of Plastic Surgery & Bioengineering; Vice Chair of Research, Department of Plastic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh (Equalize Mentee)
• Shobha Parthasarathi, External Innovation and New Ventures, Xontogeny (Equalize Mentor)

This webinar is free to all of OUP’s academic institution partners.

Register for the webinar here.