Currently, only 2.7% of VC funding in the US goes to women-led startups, with a dismal 0.2% going to Black women founders and 0.4% going to Latinx women founders.
Yet women make up 50% of the consumer population, and the data shows that startups led by women achieve a 35% higher return on investment, and, when venture backed, generate 12% higher revenue.
And only 105 companies with Black or Latino founders have raised rounds of $1M+ since 2000 despite representing a $4 trillion dollar market opportunity.
The VC world has ignored underestimated women and diverse founders for far too long. This untapped market is a huge arbitrage opportunity to realize venture returns.
- VC-backed companies that are the most inclusive of women in top management generate 34% higher total return to shareholders, and achieved comparable early-year revenues while using an average of 1/3 less committed capital.
- There is a strong and statistically significant correlation between the diversity of management teams and overall innovation. Companies that reported above-average diversity on their management teams also reported innovation revenue that was 19 points higher than that of companies with below-average leadership diversity—45% of total revenue versus just 26%.
- Black women founders and Hispanic founders are the fastest growing demographic of entrepreneurs in the US.
- Between 2007 and 2018, the number of Latina-owned firms increased by 172%. The number of Black-women owned businesses rose 164%.
Our Response:
We invest primarily in Seed and Series A companies being built by traditionally underfunded founders.
At least 70% of our investments will be in women-led startups. Of that 70%, at least half will go to women who also come from another group traditionally underrepresented in the tech startup space.
The remaining 30% must have one of more of the following characteristics:
- Founder from any traditionally underrepresented group, such as race, ethnicity, LGBTQ+, socioeconomic background, nationality, age, or location.
- Solution focused on increasing diversity, equity and inclusion.
- Solution focused on serving traditionally underserved customer groups.
Invest Today
If you believe, as we do, that there’s an incredible opportunity in investing in a new class of diverse founders who are creating the future of tech, we’d love to talk with you about becoming an LP.