A recent study (https://angelinvestorsnetwork.com/venture-capital/women-founders-vc-funding-statistics-the-5-trillion-gap) found that female founded privately held companies generate 78 cents per dollar invested by venture capital versus 31 cents per dollar for male founded companies.  A study by the Boston Consulting Group (https://www.bcg.com/publications/2018/why-women-owned-startups-are-better-bet) with a five year dataset found that investment in female founded companies generated approximately 2.5 times more for deployed capital ($730,000 on an average investment of $935,000 in female led companies) versus ($662,000 on an average investment of $2,100,000 in male led companies).  Mixed gender ownership teams secured 14.1% of investment, but I could not find data on the return that group generated on deployed capital.

IBA professionally supports all successful entrepreneurs in the sale of their privately held companies, family businesses, and the associated real estate, when applicable.  We have sold businesses founded and executively operated by people across a spectrum of genders, sexual orientations, religions, ethnicities, and national origins for strong market values in transactions facilitated employing best practices with integrity since 1975 in the Pacific Northwest.  On the buyer side of the equation, our doors are open to all who want to acquire a business or franchise.  A question often asked to the IBA business brokers working out of our ten offices in Washington & Oregon is “where are the best acquisition opportunities in the marketplace”.  Answers by our team are frequently provided referencing industries, geographic areas, and operational infrastructures that are underperforming.  As a firm that has successfully facilitated over 4400 transactions, we know what is happening in our regional marketplace fluently. Our industry transaction teams focused on facilitating sales in approximately twenty sectors of the economy, know those spaces much better than a generalist business broker who has never done a deal or limited transactions in that space and trying to learn by quiring AI.  NEWS FLASH: Business sale data is not publicly reported.  Additionally, even when it is found it is incomplete information because no one, but the parties involved in the transaction knows whether it was a distressed sale motivated by a partnership breakup or health issues or if the acquisition was a critical puzzle piece sought after in a strategic acquisition.  I encourage you to read this article I wrote on the value of sold comparables in pricing businesses:  https://ibainc.com/blog/gregory-kovsky/does-the-ability-exist-to-use-sold-business-transaction-comparables-effectively-in-valuing-privately-held-companies-and-family-businesses/

One seldom focused on and rarely talked about acquisition space that IBA has been successfully serving since before the WNBA was born (The year was 1997 if you are curious) and recommending to buyers for acquisition is the female owned businesses.  We have consistently found our clients from this demographic group to have operationally strong, financially thriving companies with outstanding corporate cultures.  The industries of these business sale projects have ranged from professional service companies in human resources, banking, event production and scientific research auditing to manufacturing companies involving metal, wood, textiles, and consumable products to retail operations selling flowers, clothing, home improvement materials, and telecommunication equipment.  Frequently, the companies have been forward thinking in terms of the marketplaces they served and the technology they employed.  Commonly, the impetus for company creation was a glass ceiling limiting progress up the corporate ladder or not being heard at prior employers.

The ability to acquire female owned businesses used to be relatively rare (Less than 13% of businesses were majority owned by women in 1982: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0304393224001296), today approximately 40% of privately held companies and family businesses are female led (https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinecastrillon/2026/03/17/women-now-own-over-40-of-us-businesses-why-entrepreneurship-is-rising/).  IBA clients are known for their efforts to negotiate “win-win” transactions and customer satisfaction is consistently high at IBA for buyers who acquire businesses through our firm.  One reason people purchase privately held companies and family businesses versus starting one is that along with the purchase of the company they commonly receive a period of mentorship from departing ownership on how to manage and operate the company.  Men can be wonderful mentors.  I personally take great pride, as the President & CEO of IBA, in my ability to take the talent & experience of members of my team and enhance it to allow each and every one of IBA’s business brokers to achieve their professional potential facilitating transactions from company valuation pre marketing to closing. The ability to teach the business brokerage profession to others is one of the reasons I am still motivated to go to work each day.  Business brokerage is a wonderful professionally and personally rewarding career.

However, research has shown that females, in general, may be better inclined to mentor in the areas necessary to successfully transition executive leadership of a company.   As evidence of this fact, a recent Forbes magazine article (https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2023/03/31/new-research-women-more-effective-than-men-in-all-leadership-measures/) said the following:

Women leaders score significantly higher in their capability to “connect and relate to others,” as well as in the Authenticity and Systems Awareness competencies. This suggests that women leaders are not only better at building relationships but also that the relationships they build are characterized by authenticity and an awareness of how they contribute to “the greater good beyond the leader’s immediate sphere of influence.”

Whether a buyer should purchase a business from a female owner and be mentored by them during the transition of leadership is likely not a “go no go” metric for an acquisition, but it could be an additional reason not to lose a purchase opportunity in a competitive marketplace.

IBA has a diverse, talented, and high achieving team of mergers & acquisition intermediaries including geographic & industry specialists, native speakers in a spectrum of languages able to support people who have adopted English as a second language, males, and females.  Recently IBA sold a company where one of our broker’s ability to speak Russian was a difference maker in getting people to “YES”.  We have also facilitated transactions where female entrepreneurs want a female business broker.  IBA is blessed to have the largest and highest performing group of female business brokers in the Pacific Northwest.  Grace Chang on the IBA team successfully sold three companies at the end of Q2 2026.  Andrea Lines has facilitated a robust marketplace for education industry companies to complete numerous sales recently and deliver a value $500,000 above asking price for a business.  Kate Dare was active in Skagit County, Washington selling one company in the area to a strategic acquirer building out a national platform and another in a retirement sale that manufactured scientific products for national & international customers.  Sally Bergesen was IBA’s 2025 Broker of the Year (https://ibainc.com/blog/gregory-kovsky/sally-bergesen-named-ibas-2025-broker-of-the-year/) and has continued performing at a high level in 2026.  Amanda Kennedy, the newest member of IBA’s female intermediary team, is presently staging hospitality and manufacturing sector companies for sale.

Primary considerations in the purchase of a business by buyers are commonly location, industry, company value, liquid capital, and their signature power (https://ibainc.com/blog/gregory-kovsky/why-signature-power-matters-in-the-selection-of-a-buyer-in-the-sale-of-a-business/).  If those elements pass scrutiny, timely negotiating engagement is likely prudent.  Secondary & tertiary elements like who the owner is in terms of reputation, experience, and potentially gender should then follow as considerations on whether to complete the acquisition.

It should also be noted that female founders exit on average six months faster than male founders from ownership according to a 2024 Pitchbook study (https://theanna.io/state-of-female-founders).   Statistically creating an increased volume of opportunities to purchase female owned companies in the future.

IBA, the Pacific Northwest’s premier business brokerage firm since 1975, is available as an information resource to the media, business brokerage, mergers & acquisitions, and real estate communities on subjects relevant to the purchase & sale of privately held companies and family businesses.  IBA is recognized as one of the best business brokerage firms in the nation based on its long track record of successfully negotiating “win-win” business sale transactions in environments of full disclosure employing “best practices”.