This is a guest post by Loretta McCarthy, an investor and managing director at Golden Seeds . You can follow Loretta on twitter at @lorettamccarthy

There is much mention of the merits of investors focusing on women entrepreneurs. Yes, it is a way of fostering equality and thus doing good, but that isn't enough for those who are putting capital at risk. There are important aspects of gender investing that are relevant even if the investor hasn't embraced the concept of improved equality.

Diverse management teams perform better

Women entrepreneurs nearly always produce more diverse management teams. It is widely acknowledged that diverse management teams, on average, achieve higher levels of profitability. A study by Catalyst, "The Bottom Line: Connecting Corporate Performance and Gender Diversity", concluded that companies with the highest representation of women on their top management teams experienced better financial performance than companies with the lowest women’s representation. This finding holds for both Return on Equity, which is 35 percent higher, and Total Return to Shareholders, which is 34 percent higher. A recent study of US venture-backed companies by Dow Jones Venture Source, “Women at the Wheel: Do Female Executives Drive Start-Up Success?”, concluded that a company's odds of success increase markedly as the portion of women executives increases. In study after study, it has been found that companies with greater gender diversity outperform those with less – frequently by as much as 30%. Clearly, the debate has shifted from an issue of fairness and equality to a question of superior performance. That alone is a reason to invest in women-led companies.

Women entrepreneurs are an underfunded opportunity

It is clear that despite the rapid rise in women-led businesses, and the convincing data above, many such companies are still underfunded. Although women own about one-third of all US small businesses and start companies at twice the rate of men, according to Dow Jones VentureSource, only 11% of venture-capital funding goes to female entrepreneurs. There may be many reasons for this. The most common explanation is that most venture investors are still men and they are less familiar with investing in women. Maybe those women are also less familiar with navigating the investing terrain. Perhaps their business concepts don't sync with the sectors that many angels are seeking. Why should Wefunder investors care about this? Simply because you may be overlooking some great opportunities if you are not considering women entrepreneurs. To have a complete portfolio, it is wise to evaluate the many interesting opportunities available through women entrepreneurs.

What Golden Seeds has learned

Golden Seeds is a NYC-headquartered national angel group which finds, funds and mentors women-led companies. We have learned that focusing on women-led businesses will produce investment portfolios with diverse management teams of both women and men, which is our ultimate goal. We have learned that this approach attracts substantial capital from both women and men who want to consider the many outstanding opportunities they may not encounter elsewhere. This level of commitment is driving more capital to women-led companies, a trend worth noting for Wefunder investors and many others.