  The allocation of venture capital is one of the primary factors determining
who takes products to market, which startups succeed or fail, and as such who
gets to participate in the shaping of our collective economy. While gender
diversity contributes to startup success, most funding is allocated to
male-only entrepreneurial teams. In the wake of COVID-19, 2020 is seeing a
notable decline in funding to female and mixed-gender teams, giving raise to an
urgent need to study and correct the longstanding gender bias in startup
funding allocation. We conduct an in-depth data analysis of over 48,000
companies on Crunchbase, comparing funding allocation based on the gender
composition of founding teams. Detailed findings across diverse industries and
geographies are presented. Further, we construct machine learning models to
predict whether startups will reach an equity round, revealing the surprising
finding that the CEO's gender is the primary determining factor for attaining
funding. Policy implications for this pressing issue are discussed.
