If VCs truly want more diversity in their portfolio, they’ve got to drop the ‘warm’ intro bullshit.
Diversity statistics within venture capital in the UK – and globally – make for grim reading.
In 2017, landmark research from British Business Bank, the BVCA and Diversity VC found that for every £1 of VC investment in the UK, female founder teams got less than 1p. More recent data suggests this figure has seen a small increase since, but it still remains embarrassingly imbalanced.
And it is the same, or worse, for founders who are Black or Asian; so god knows how it feels to be a Black, female founder looking for VC funding.
And the reality is that the old habits of seasoned venture capital firms aren’t doing anything to help matters. That VC firms in 2022 still suggest, quite openly, that they favour deals bought into them via warm intros from their close network and trusted advisors shows just how little many VCs focus on improving those stats....