The story of funding for female founders over the past year seems to be a few outlier AI businesses skewing the data for the rest; $30 billion raised by Anthropic and Scale AI last year made 2025 a record year in funding for female founders, according to PitchBook, even as deal count fell.
A new analysis from Female Founders Fund, out this morning, adds some additional context to that data. What stands out to me is a new category the fund is calling “zombie unicorns.”
In 2025, there were 20 new female-founded unicorns (companies valued at more than $1 billion), and the aggregate valuation of female-founded unicorns reached a record high of $481 billion. Amazing! Except there is also a growing cohort of companies with unicorn valuations that are “still operating, but are unable to raise an up round, not on a clear path to IPO, and not attracting acquisition offers that match their last private valuation.”
Female Founders Fund doesn’t name check any companies that fall into this category, but a few come to mind. The fertility network Kindbody was valued at $1.8 billion in 2023, and earlier this year it was reported the company’s valuation had fallen to $400 million as it shuttered clinics. The luggage and travel brand Away was valued at $1.4 billion in 2019. Founder Jen Rubio said last year that Away’s investors were prepared for a “longer time horizon” for any exit. There’s even Glossier, which was valued at $1.2 billion in 2019 and last raised at a down round—although it seems to be growing again after a reset.
