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The end of 2019 shows an uptick in the percentage of venture capital investment in female-founded companies. While 2.3 percent of capital was invested in such businesses in 2018 , this year shows that figure to have grown to 2.8 percent . The change is small, but promising, considering that the official end of the year is still three weeks away. In a December 2019 Tech Crunch article, author, Kate Clark attributes the gender discrepancy in venture capital investment in part to the lack of women hired by venture capital funds. She noted that “ Men have 64 percent of all startup equity .” In a September 2019, “ Close the Gap ” news clip produced by CNBC, Edith Dorsen, founder of Women’s VC Fund, helps create awareness of the need for venture capital for female-led companies. As CNBC’s Julia Boorstin reports, others see the investment value as well. According to investor Reggie Van Lee, The Carlyle Group’s chief transformation officer, “ This equity issue that exists with respect to...
Morgan Stanley recently released a study called “ The Trillion-Dollar Blindspot” showing that trillions of dollars are left on the table by venture capital (VC) firms who won’t invest in women and minority founders. “I think it’s important that people start to think to themselves that we could be in fact cheating our LPs if we don’t give ourselves full access to all of the opportunities that are out there,” Carla Harris, vice chairman at Morgan Stanley told Bloomberg’s Alix Steel on “Bloomberg Daybreak: Americas.” The report shows that only 17 percent and 18 percent of investors say they “very frequently” review startups and businesses led by women and minorities, respectively. “When VCs are thinking about investing they say ‘no’ in most cases to women and multicultural entrepreneurs is because the product or the process or the opportunity doesn’t fit,” Harris said. The study reports 46 percent of investors said traditional business sectors were a compelling factor when assessing a...
Women founders received only 2.2 percent of U.S. venture capital this year, according to data from Pitchbook. That number has not budged since last year, and it sheds light on one of the broader gender issues in entrepreneurship — most of the big decision makers are men. Organizations like EnrichHer , Jane VC and Backstage Capital are working to diversify who venture capital goes to and are bringing women to the forefront of VC funding. EnRicherHer is a platform that allows women-entrepreneurs to connect directly to investors. Investors can send money to the companies and organizations of their choice directly through the platform. EnrichHer also features chatting options and funding profiles to help users navigate how and with whom they’d like to spend their money. Jane VC is a women-led VC firm that wants to fund female entrepreneurs. The company has revamped the way that entrepreneurs pitch investors by asking female founders to pitch directly to the firm. Jane VC gives...
Being an entrepreneur is a constant cycle of pitching and producing. Jane VC , a women-led venture capital firm that launched last week, is making pitching more efficient by letting female entrepreneurs cold email and pitch them directly here . Jane VC’s co-founders Jennifer Neundorfer and Maren Thomas Bannon were classmates in Stanford University’s MBA program and have each had successful runs as business owners prior to starting their firm. Neundorfer previously founded Flashstarts, a VC firmed that helped fund more than 50 Midwest-based startups. Bannon is the former CEO and founder of LittleLane, an online platform that gives parents access to local kids’ activities. “We started Jane after experiencing first-hand the systemic hurdles women face in tech,” the founders said in a blog post. The duo said that they want to take the hassle out of introductions and entrepreneurs can expect a timely and direct reply to pitches, even when they are turned down. “We are transparent about...
The Women Nation Fund is Live Nation’s latest initiative, a global early-stage investment fund focused on developing women-led music-based business ventures. Women doing work in concert promotions, events and festival industries are qualified to apply for the fund, where they can receive valuable information, resources and money to lead to more women-run events. “As the leader in live entertainment, we want to meaningfully address this issue, change the dynamic and widen the playing field,” said Michael Rapino, CEO and President of Live Nation. Proposals for businesses in any country or region in the world are fair game as long as they are women-founded and provide a product or service in the live event space. Live Nation is a clear leader in the live entertainment space, and the team of leaders who will evaluate the businesses includes a group of experienced women executives according to Billboard , including Anna Sjolund (Co-Managing Director/Head Promoter, Live Nation...