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According to a new report there is a lack of diversity in Europe's VC funds — just 15% of partners are female. Limited Partners (LPs) have a significant role in ensuring better gender balance in funds but what action is being undertaken to improve the gender balance beyond just "monitoring the diversity of its portfolio"? and what are LPs and GPs doing to ensure the gender balance of the Board and management teams of the start-ups that they're investing in? And finally, what are the wider ramifications of the lack of diversity?
"KfW Capital — a subsidiary of the KfW Development Bank and a major LP in German and European VC — has backed 85 funds to date, including Germany’s Project A and Earlybird and France’s Partech Ventures. The organisation says it’s monitoring the diversity of its portfolio — in particular, the gender split on partner and team level — in an effort to promote female talent. And there’s early signs it could be paying off. Of the 22 VC funds in which KfW Capital invested in 2022, half had at least one female partner."
It’s well known that tech has a diversity problem, with startups founded by women significantly underfunded compared to ones founded by men. One reason for this disparity: the ones dishing out the cash — the VCs — aren’t diverse themselves.
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