In a year poised to bring in the most venture capital investment for US startups since the dot-com boom, female founders are also experiencing VC highs.

In the first six months of 2018, US companies with at least one female founder brought in $7.2 billion in venture capital funding, about 12.5% of all VC collected so far this year, per PitchBook data. That $7.2 billion includes four rounds of at least $100 million: Tmunity's $135 million financing, Twist Bioscience's $125 million round, and a pair of $100 million fundings for wedding planning startup Zola and office catering service ezCater.

Last year, US-based female-founded companies raised a total of $12.3 billion, a small percentage of the $81.9 billion secured by all US-based companies, though still a decade high for women entrepreneurs. (The oft-cited statistic, that just 2.2% of VC funding went to female founders in 2017, refers to companies founded solely by women, not those that also have male founders.)

At the current pace, women founders will bring in more VC this year than last, though considering that the entire venture capital market is expected to surge past previous highs, it's only natural. As of the end of June, VCs had already injected $57.5 billion in US-based startups. That means that 2018 is set to be the first year since the dot-com boom with more than $100 billion in deal value, per the 2Q 2018 PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor.

Overall, investment in female founders is keeping pace with the VC market as a whole. A good thing, of course, but it doesn't appear there will be an otherwise notable increase in investment in the space this year. It's clear that there's still a lot of work to be done before businesses founded by women are regularly pulling in an equitable portion of VC dollars.

Related reads: Startups founded by black women raised 5x more VC in 2017

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