NCFA Fintech Confidential October 2021 (Issue 4)

We are all in the COVID sea, but each of us is on
different ships. Companies that rely on faceto-face
contact, such as accommodation and
food services, have been negatively impacted,
whereas online delivery has seen significant
growth. The CFIB Small business recovery
dashboard 1 shows that as of 19th August 2021,
76% of small businesses are fully open, with
47% fully staffed and 39% at normal sales.
The data doesn’t show the massive variation
within respondents, but it is fair to say, sales
for small businesses are, overall, way down.
Women have been disproportionately
affected by COVID
McKinsey has been sharing their weekly view
on the impact of COVID. Their analysis has
shown that although women make up 39% of
global employment, they have experienced
54% of overall job losses 2 . Women have been
disproportionately represented in industries
that have declined due to COVID. Much of
the job creation focus has been in maledominated
industries such as communication
and construction.
The National Angel Capital Organisation’s
(NACO) 2021 report on Angel Investing 3
highlighted the research in Crunchbase’s 2020
report. It found that 20% of global startups
were woman-founded, but women were less
likely to seek and receive financing than men
(32.6% vs. 38%). Businesses owned by men are
more likely to receive venture capital, angel
funding and other forms of leverage such as
trade credit and capital leasing. Concerningly,
Crunchbase 2020 data shows that the
proportion of dollars to women-only founding
teams declined, to 2.3%, compared to 2.8%
in 2019. Underrepresented organizations,
including Black and Indigenous founders,
also receive less capital.
The reduction in investment in women-only
businesses is worrying since women have
been disproportionately affected by COVID.
The negative impact for women in business
during this time has been exponential in
nature. It is a double whammy.
I recall speaking at the Global Crowdfunding
Conference in 2016 on the increased
success for women and underrepresented
organisations through crowdfunding. The
PWC data supported these findings a year
later, with 17% of male-led campaigns reaching
their finance target, compared with 22% of
female-led campaigns. Overall, campaigns
led by women were 32% more successful at
reaching their funding target than those led
by men, data seen across multiple sectors,
geographies and cultures. ESMT’s data in
2019, again, backed this up 4 .
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1
https://www.smallbusinesseveryday.ca/dashboard/
2
https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/covid-19-and-gender-equality-countering-theregressive-effects
3
https://digital.builtbyangels.com/link/741283/150/
4
https://phys.org/news/2019-03-women-successful-crowdfunding-men.html