We investigate gender-specific local biases among investors in equity crowdfunding. Based on data from a major German crowdfunding platform, we find that domestic investors favour ventures that are geographically closer to their own place of residence. This bias is particularly evident among female investors, although it is partially offset by gender homophily, whereby female investors favour companies with women in the top management team. Finally, we show that the introduction of the German Small Investor Protection Act may have exacerbated local biases in the German crowdfunding market, particularly with respect to firms with female management. Overall, our results suggest that establishing their companies in close proximity to a large number of potential female crowd investors may help improve female entrepreneurs’ chances of attracting equity crowdfunding investment.

我们调查了股权众筹投资者中特定性别的当地偏见。根据德国一家主要众筹平台的数据，我们发现国内投资者更青睐距离自己居住地较近的企业。这种偏见在女性投资者中尤为明显，尽管这种偏见被性别同质性所部分抵消，即女性投资者青睐高层管理团队中有女性的公司。最后，我们表明，德国小投资者保护法的出台可能加剧了德国众筹市场的当地偏见，特别是对于女性管理层的公司。总体而言，我们的结果表明，在靠近大量潜在女性众筹投资者的地方建立自己的公司可能有助于提高女性企业家吸引股权众筹投资的机会。