VC Investment in Female Founded Companies is Still Lagging

https://files.pitchbook.com/website/files/pdf/Q1_2020_PitchBook_NVCA_Venture_Monitor.pdf

Despite all of the major systemic changes that have taken place in the past few years and months, venture capital investment in female and Black/Latinx-founded companies is still incredibly low. We were pleased to see Ilene Lang, Former CEO of Catalyst and a mentor/friend of the firm, along with Reggie Van Lee, Former EVP at Booz Allen, discussing this important issue in an HBR article last week.

As they state in the article (and as we are constantly reminding our clients and potential clients!), “Research repeatedly shows that companies with diversity in senior leadership significantly outperform their all-white, all-male counterparts. Diverse leadership generates better financial performance, stronger innovation, and higher levels of startup success.”

The call to action is clear: institutional investors need to incentivize VC firms to invest in diverse leaders, otherwise things will continue to remain as they are today. What do you think is holding these initiatives back?