About Equity Clear

Equity Clear was established to address a critical gap in Australia’s startup investment ecosystem: while we can measure funding outcomes, we still lack consistent visibility into how opportunities move through the investment pipeline and where founders fall away.

By improving transparency, reporting and shared evidence across the funding journey, Equity Clear is working to help build a more equitable and effective innovation economy.

Why pipeline visibility matters

Despite sustained attention on the gender funding gap, funding outcomes remain heavily concentrated in men-only founding teams.

Australia has increasingly robust data on who receives funding, but limited visibility into how opportunities move through the investment pipeline: who enters, who progresses, where opportunities fall away, and how decisions are made over time.

Without that visibility, investors and ecosystem leaders lack the evidence needed to understand where barriers emerge, where opportunities may be being missed, and where interventions may be most effective.

Improving pipeline visibility helps strengthen evidence, inform decision-making and support a more equitable innovation economy.

A structural funding gap exists

$5.4B deployed in Australia

(State of Australian Startup Funding, 2025)

2%

of total capital went to women-only founding teams

The gap has persisted despite growing investment activity

22%

to mixed-gender founding teams

76%

to male-only founding teams

Our Unique Insight

Australia currently measures funding outcomes, but still lacks visibility into where opportunities fall away across the investment pipeline.

Equity Clear’s work focuses on improving visibility into how founders move through the funding journey - from application and first meeting through to due diligence, investment committee and funding outcome.

Better pipeline visibility creates stronger evidence about where opportunities fall away.

Why Equity Clear was created

Founded in 2022 by Scale Investors, Alberts and Giant Leap, Equity Clear began with a focus on investor transparency and diversity reporting across Australia’s startup investment ecosystem.

Today, Equity Clear’s work spans ecosystem reporting frameworks, national evidence-building and the proposed Equity Clear Data Standard - helping strengthen visibility across the funding pipeline and support a more transparent investment ecosystem.

Ranked #43 on Fortune’s Change the World List, 2023.

Co-Designed Through National Ecosystem Engagement

The next phase of Equity Clear's work was developed through Show Us the Data - a national initiative exploring how Australia can improve visibility across the funding pipeline through more consistent diversity reporting.

Over six months, Equity Clear engaged investors, founders, researchers, government stakeholders and ecosystem leaders across Australia to explore the challenges, opportunities and practical considerations involved in building a common reporting approach.

The resulting report and proposed Equity Clear Standard reflect input from more than 160 organisations across five states, including collaboration with UNSW Centre for Social Impact.