The British Venture Capital Association (BVCA) has published guidelines offering practical advice and best practice suggestions for investors on diversity and inclusion in their investments. Aimed at investors in all sectors and across all stages, the guidelines focus on 4 key areas:
- Talent acquisition, retention and development.
- Internal education, culture and policy.
- Outreach, access to dealflow, and unconscious investment bias.
- Influence, external guidance and portfolio management.
The guidelines were produced by professionals and investors from across the industry including Ada Ventures, Pollen Street Capital, KPMG, Diversity VC, Diversio and Atomico.
Lindsay McMurray, Managing Partner at Pollen Street Capital commented:
“This is a helpful document written by investors for investors. It’s designed to give practical advice and actionable suggestions for any investor looking to improve diversity, inclusion and returns. Tangible action to ensure diversity across the investment industry is important to uncover and fund innovation but also from a performance perspective. Case in point, research increasingly demonstrates that firms with more female executives outperform less gender diverse peers.”
The guidance follows NatWest Group CEO Alison Rose’s 2019 review of female entrepreneurship which found:
- Just 13% of senior people on UK investment teams are women;
- Almost half (48%) of investment teams have no women at all;
- Only 1% of UK venture funding goes to to all-female founders;
- Only 4% of deals relate to all-female founded teams
The full guidelines can be found HERE.