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Why Female CEOs Are Getting More Funding How companies are pushing to close the gender financing gap.

By Michelle Goodman

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Oliver Munday

You've probably heard the statistics. Women are starting businesses at one and a half times the national average. Yet female founders receive just 25 percent of angel investments in the U.S., and companies with a woman CEO get just 3 percent of venture capital.

Investment groups such as Golden Seeds and BELLE Capital USA, which bankroll women-led companies, have worked toward shrinking this financing gap for years. Same goes for mentorship organizations such as Springboard Enterprises and Astia, which educate women on raising capital and provide access to it. But lately they have a lot of company. Angel investment groups and boot camps designed to get female entrepreneurs funded and more women to the investment table are cropping up throughout the U.S.: X Squared Angels, 37 Angels and Pipeline Fellowship, to name a few.

Andrea Paul, co-founder of Board Vitals, approached 37 Angels in 2013 when seeking $500,000 in seed money for her medical test-prep platform. Two investors from the group contributed, and several introduced the MD-turned-entrepreneur to educational publishers that now provide content for the startup's online question bank.