Who are the top women angel investors? We've got a list of top female angel investors in the U.S. ranked by the success rate of their portfolios and investment rate.
In this article, we look at the most active women angel investors, with at least 20 investments, as well as those whose portfolios had the highest proportion of exits such as acquisitions or IPOs.
Note on data: All data for this ranking was taken from Crunchbase, which is one of the most accessible platforms for founders. Crunchbase, like any other investment aggregator platform, does not have complete data, however. Still, we judge the available data to be more than sufficient for this ranking.
Most Active Female Angel Investors
To start, we took a look at the most active female angel investors with 20 or more investments as reported on Crunchbase. Esther Dyson, Cyan Banister, and Joanne Wilson are the most active women angel investors in the U.S.
1. Esther Dyson
Esther Dyson is an investor and philanthropist and the founder of Wellville, a nonprofit dedicated to demonstrating the value of long-term investment in health and equity.
Investments: 122
Diversity Investments: 24
LinkedIn | Crunchbase
2. Cyan Banister
Cyan Banister is a partner at Founders Fund, where she invests across sectors and stages with a particular interest in augmented reality, femtech, and security.
Investments: 110
Diversity Investments: 22
Website | LinkedIn | Crunchbase
3. Joanne Wilson
Joanne Wilson has had diverse careers and is an angel investor, blogger, and co-founder of the Women's Entrepreneur Festival.
Investments: 73
Diversity Investments: 45
Website | LinkedIn | Crunchbase
4. Anne Wojcicki
Anne Wojcicki is the Co-Founder and CEO of 23andMe and formerly worked as a healthcare analyst.
Investments: 55
Diversity Investments: 28
LinkedIn | Crunchbase
5. Meltem Demirors
Meltem Demirors is Chief Strategy Officer of CoinShares, managing $750M in assets and a trusted investment partner.
Investments: 55
Diversity Investments: 3
LinkedIn | Crunchbase
6. Varsha Rao
Varsha Rao is the Executive Partner at Flare Capital Partners, former Head of Global Operations at Airbnb, and CEO of Nurx.
Investments: 48
Diversity Investments: 15
Website | LinkedIn | Crunchbase
7. Constance Freedman
Constance Freedman is the Member Board of Directors at Equity LifeStyle Properties and founder/ managing partner.
Investments: 47
Diversity Investments: 11
LinkedIn | Crunchbase
8. Allison Pickens
Allison Pickens is founder and general partner at Allison Pickens Ventures and was director at Rainforest Connection.
Investments: 43
Diversity Investments: 9
Website | LinkedIn | Crunchbase
9. Edith Yeung
Edith is a venture capitalist, technology executive, and creator of China Internet Report and Silicon News.
Investments: 36
Diversity Investments: 4
Website | LinkedIn | Crunchbase
10. April Underwood
April Underwood is Managing Director and Co-Founder of Adverb Ventures, with a history leading tech startups.
Investments: 32
Diversity Investments: 14
Website | LinkedIn | Crunchbase
11. Ruchi Sanghvi
Ruchi Sanghvi is Founder of South Park Commons with an influential presence in the startup ecosystem.
Investments: 32
Diversity Investments: 7
LinkedIn | Crunchbase
12. Ling Wong
Dr. Ling Wong is Founder and General Partner of Highbury Group and Sea Lane Ventures, also senior advisor to Lightspeed Ventures.
Investments: 32
Diversity Investments: 11
Website | LinkedIn | Crunchbase
13. Ellen Levy
Ellen Levy is Managing Director of Silicon Valley Connect, with extensive experience in mentoring and investing.
Investments: 31
Diversity Investments: 15
LinkedIn | Crunchbase
14. Julia Hartz
Julia Hartz is CEO of Eventbrite, aiming to inspire people to live more through live experiences marketplace.
Investments: 30
Diversity Investments: 11
LinkedIn | Crunchbase
15. Marissa Mayer
Marissa Mayer is Co-Founder at Sunshine and board member at AT&T, with leadership in tech startups.
Investments: 30
Diversity Investments: 14
LinkedIn | Crunchbase
16. Caterina Fake
Caterina Fake is Co-Founder and General Partner of Yes VC, with a history hosting tech innovation shows.
Investments: 28
Diversity Investments: 10
Website | LinkedIn | Crunchbase
17. Holly Liu
Holly Liu is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of PKO Investments, with roots in major universities like UC Berkeley.
Investments: 27
Diversity Investments: 12
LinkedIn | Crunchbase
18. Kim Perell
Kim Perell is a tech CEO and angel investor, CEO and Founder of 100.co and former CEO at Amobee.
Investments: 26
Diversity Investments: 5
Website | LinkedIn | Crunchbase
19. Chloe Sladden
Chloe Sladden is founding partner at Angels venture capital.
Investments: 23
Diversity Investments: 10
LinkedIn
20. Julia Lipton
Julia Lipton is Founder of Awesome People Ventures and an active angel investor.
Investments: 22
Diversity Investments: 5
LinkedIn
21. Fidji Simo
Fidji Simo is CEO of Instacart and Chair of its Board of Directors.
Investments: 21
Diversity Investments: 3
LinkedIn
22. Sara Du
Sara Du is CEO and Co-Founder of Alloy Automation focused on high-growth startups.
Investments: 21
Diversity Investments: 3
Website | LinkedIn
23. Julia Popowitz
Julia Popowitz is an active technology angel investor with investments in high-profile startups like Alt12 (acquired by Honest Co), BetterUp, and Gusto. She has a legal background and played a key role in Facebook's growth.
Investments: 21
Diversity Investments: 6
LinkedIn | Crunchbase
24. Natalie Carnegie
Natalie Carnegie is the Founder and General Partner at Carnegie VC with angel investments in Flexport, Houseparty, and Wefunder.
Investments: 21
Diversity Investments: 6
LinkedIn | Crunchbase
25. Shan-Lyn Ma
Shan-Lyn Ma is Co-Founder and CEO of Zola, reinventing wedding planning and registry experience.
Investments: 21
Diversity Investments: 10
LinkedIn | Crunchbase
26. Julie McDermott
Julie McDermott is active in seed-stage investing across biotech, healthtech, and fintech, named among top seed investors by Business Insider.
Investments: 21
Diversity Investments: 15
LinkedIn
27. Jennifer Fleiss
Jennifer Fleiss is Co-Founder and President of Rent the Runway, a leading designer dress and accessories rental company.
Investments: 20
Diversity Investments: 12
LinkedIn | Crunchbase
28. Lori Greiner
Lori Greiner is a television personality and entrepreneur, known for her angel investing in startups.
Investments: 20
Diversity Investments: 4
Crunchbase
29. Terra Han
Terra Han is Founder and CEO of TeRra VR and a Harvard University alumna.
Investments: 20
Diversity Investments: 12
Website | LinkedIn
30. Katie Shea
Katie Shea is Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Divergent Capital and an active angel investor.
Investments: 20
Diversity Investments: 11
LinkedIn | Crunchbase
Top Female Angel Investors According to Exit Rate
To rank the top women angel investors, we looked at the rate at which their portfolio companies reach an exit such as an acquisition or initial public offering (IPO). According to their portfolio's exit rate, Kim Perell is the top female angel investor in the U.S. Other top female angels include Constance Freedman, Caterina Fake, Julia Popowitz, and Marissa Mayer.
Women Angels Investing in Diverse Founders
We also wanted to see which women angels were investing in diverse founders such as women, Black, Latina, and Asian founders. Our team measured this by the share of each angel’s portfolio that went into diverse founders, as defined by Crunchbase.
Julie McDermott, Joanne Wilson, Jennifer Fleiss, Terra Han, and Katie Shea have the highest rates of diversity investments among female angels.
What's interesting is that women angels tend to invest in diverse founders at higher rates than their male angel investor colleagues.
Corrections and Additions
We hope that you found this list of top women angel investors helpful and interesting. We try our best to provide accurate information, but if we missed something, please reach out to let us know via email to sergio [at] betaboom.com. Thanks!
