And while under normal circumstances, this event would have occurred with mimosas and sunshine at a GCV event around the world, she said. This time, GCV resorted to using Zoom with coffee in hand to hold the latest Women In Venture meeting at the Festival of Corporate Venturing thanks to the vision of sponsors Fenwick and West and Silicon Valley Bank plus the legendary inaugural chairwoman of the GCV Leadership Society, Claudia Fan Munce.
There is gradual diversification of talent at CVCs and the broader venture industry.
GCV’s annual survey has seen a six percentage point drop in all-male teams to 12% from 18% in the 2018 edition of our annual review, the World of Corporate Venturing (now out!)
And corporations are also leading using a wider lens of diversity, equity and inclusion by supporting and committing as limited partners (LP) to external VC funds targeting underrepresented minorities.
Eli Lilly, a New York-listed drugs developer, has just committed $30m to Unseen Capital Health Fund to invest in racially-diverse, early-stage healthcare companies and those building solutions for marginalized communities. This follows a $10m commitment by Apple to Harlem Capital in the wake of other corporations, such as PayPal.
In aggregate, US companies have committed more than $35bn towards racial equity investing, according to the Wall Street Journal.
And Culture Shift Labs (CSL), which has undertaken a three-month study of 84 black-led VC firms in the country to gather baseline data on their size, character, and capacity, has seen its LP community grew from 40 in January 2020 to over 138 by November 2020.
Andrea Hoffman, CEO of CSL, found 100% of the portfolio gains in one sample firm were attributable to women-led companies, and over 75% of the gains were attributable to mixed-ethnicity teams.
“The bottom line is that for whatever reason – be it ethical or be it the pursuit of returns – it looks like billions are inching towards investing in diverse founders and their ventures,” the report found.
