With various estimates out there putting the numbers of female venture capitalists and female founders receiving venture capital at about or under 5 percent, this is a solid start. The announcement:
Forty-five venture capital firms representing over $100 billion in assets under management invested in nearly 7,000 startups across 45 states today announced their commitment to advancing opportunity for women and underrepresented minorities in venture capital and the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Led by the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) Diversity Task Force, the commitments were announced in a letter to President Obama as part of the first-ever White House Demo Day, which is bringing together diverse entrepreneurs and other key stakeholders from across the ecosystem to convene and showcase the innovation economy.
NVCA Diversity Task Force member firms Scale Venture Partners, Greenspring Associates, Polaris Partners, True Ventures, .406 Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, JumpStart, Inc., Pappas Ventures, New Enterprise Associates and GE Ventures were joined by Intel Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, New Atlantic Ventures, 500 Startups, IBM Venture Capital Group, SoftTechVC, North Bridge Venture Partners, Insight Venture Partners, and many others in signing the letter.
Together, these 45 firms commit to taking the following actions:
* Distribute and participate in the National Venture Capital Association's 2015 Venture Census survey led by NVCA, Dow Jones VentureSource and CrunchBase to measure the diversity of the U.S. startup ecosystem. The results will be made public in the fall of 2015.
* Adopt HR policies within their firms to create work environments that foster respect and dignity for all. In addition, they will immediately explore and develop a forthcoming set of NVCA model HR policies.
* Contribute regularly and actively to programs and initiatives that encourage women and underrepresented minorities to consider, pursue and thrive in venture capital and entrepreneurship careers.
* Commit to visible leadership by sharing regularly within their community and throughout their portfolio the best practices that demonstrate a long term commitment to change.
Several firms also provided specific actions their partnerships will take to advance diversity. Greenspring Associates and Scale Venture Partners are committing to adopt the “Rooney/Murray Rule” for the interview processes to ensure a diverse slate of candidates is considered. True Ventures created the Priya Haji Fellowship in 2015, a nine month fellowship program for new college graduates. NCT Ventures will announce the results of its research on minority entrepreneurs to give measurable quantitative and qualitative insight into barriers to accessing capital among minority business enterprises.
Download the commitment letter and fact sheet.
The NVCA Diversity Task Force launched in 2014 to develop meaningful solutions to support diverse groups of venture capitalists and entrepreneurs in order to build a stronger innovation ecosystem for the 21st Century. The first solution set will be announced in the fall.
Separately, other firms also made announcements at the White House Demo Day. Impact investors Mitch Kapor & Freada Kapor Klein announced that the Kapor family of organizations -- Kapor Capital, the Kapor Center for Social Impact & Level Playing Field Institute - will invest $40 million dollars over three years in initiatives to accelerate their life's work of making tech entrepreneurship more inclusive.
To address both the pipeline problem and the leaky pipeline problem for African Americans, Latina/os and all women in tech, the investment will take a comprehensive approach, supporting three interrelated pillars: access to tech education, including scaling its SMASH (Summer Math and Science Honors) Academy, access to capital and strong community institutions.
“Had industry leaders committed to diversity and inclusion a decade ago, imagine how tech would look today,” stated Freada Kapor Klein, Founder of the Level Playing Field Institute and Partner at Kapor Capital.