All Raise attracts fresh funding to build a more equitable tech ecosystem
All Raise was born from a shared conviction and raised by a powerful village. What started with an email has since grown into a community with over 20,000 founders, funders, and operators — all committed to rewiring the tech industry from the inside out.
These are exciting and heady days for us. Over the past two years, we have successfully served over 5,500 female founders and funders with nearly 30,000 hours of guidance. We’ve launched dozens of programs to propel female founders and funders to new heights with insider knowledge, supportive inner circles of peers, and access to new networks. Last month we hosted our third annual All Raise VC Summit, the largest gathering of female/non binary VCs in the country.
Despite the crescendoing rallying cry for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) this year and signs of progress across tech and VC — there are troubling headwinds. The unprecedented global pandemic is adversely affecting women and people of color in particular. Last quarter, PitchBook reported that VC funding to female-founded companies dropped to the lowest quarterly total in three years. Increased publicity around racial and gender discrimination at some of its most celebrated companies demonstrates the deep roots of tech’s meritocracy myth. It certainly doesn’t help when startups co-opt the term “mission-driven” to steer clear of critical DEI work. There is no neutral choice in 2020 and not taking a stance is in itself a conscious decision.
The reason to take action could not be clearer. As we reported earlier this year, the “old boys’ club” is alive and thriving. Of the top 10 tech IPOs of the last decade, the combined market cap on debut was $334.8B, 92% of which went to male beneficiaries and investors. This doesn’t even count the record-breaking IPOs we’ve already seen and still expect to see this year. The status quo is a mighty foe.
Yet there is reason for optimism. Demand for All Raise programs has consistently exceeded our current supply, busting one of tech’s enduring myths — we don’t have a pipeline problem, we have a network access problem! The next generation of game-changing companies are being founded and funded now, and we can ensure they are more diverse and inclusive. It’s in everyone’s best interest to do so. According to Morgan Stanley, seizing opportunities to invest in underrepresented founders in the U.S. would generate over $4.4 trillion. It is possible to create a much bigger pie when we let a wider, more diverse group of talented people participate.
To break open existing networks and create new, more inclusive ones, today we’re announcing that we have raised over $11M of our $15M capital campaign from institutional, VC, and private donors.
The hallmark of the VC-backed industry is funding innovative companies to disrupt the status quo. Our partners funding All Raise are investing in a sea change for the future of their own industry. We are proud to be aligned with new partners like The Reid Hoffman Foundation, Sequoia Capital and GGV Capital, as well as renewed commitments by our founding partners, Pivotal Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank, as well as repeat funders like Sequoia Capital:
Pivotal Ventures
“Pivotal Ventures, an investment and incubation company founded by Melinda Gates, recently renewed its commitment to All Raise as a founding partner, significantly increasing their investment to provide multi-year support for both general operations and particular projects to improve the growth and retention of women in the venture-backed ecosystem.”
Silicon Valley Bank
“As we saw in the third quarter results from PitchBook, venture funding for women founders hit its lowest quarterly total in three years. This underscores the importance of the work All Raise and others are doing to increase the number of women founders and funders. Achieving gender parity will not happen without a concerted focus on creating more opportunities for women in the innovation economy. At SVB, we believe we have a responsibility to build a more diverse, inclusive and accessible ecosystem that celebrates everyone’s contributions. We’re proud to collaborate with All Raise and others to realize this vision.”
— Devika Patil, Managing Director in the Venture Capital Relationship Management Group at Silicon Valley Bank, and member of the All Raise Advisory Board
Sequoia Capital
“The story of All Raise is the story of a community coming together to lift each other up. With this new round of non-profit funding, it’s great to see so many established firms, allies, and major non-profit funders joining our community and rallying behind diversity in tech.”
— Jess Lee, Partner at Sequoia Capital, co-founder and board member of All Raise
Our goal is to seed a new flywheel in technology where women, especially women of color, as well as non-binary individuals are prominently featured in the funding, founding and scaling of technology companies. All Raise already has a proven portfolio of programs and a strong presence in major tech hubs where 70% of venture capital is currently deployed — San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, Boston, Los Angeles. With this new funding, we’ll expand our reach both in terms of geography and diversity, launching in cities across the U.S. where entrepreneurship is thriving and venture is taking seed. We’ll also be able to inclusively scale our existing programs, build new ones that include senior executives, operators, and board directors, and create a robust, diverse talent network.
You can read more about our fundraise and progress to-date here.
We also aim to reshape tech culture so diversity, equity and inclusivity are synonymous with success. You can’t be or fix what you don’t see, and people ought to experience the benefits of a wide spectrum of refreshingly different leaders. Earlier this year we unveiled our All Raise Visionary Voices speakers bureau, an unmatched collection of female or non-binary tech experts and leaders that event producers and media organizations should consider for speaking and interview opportunities. Looking ahead to 2021, we’re excited to reveal more details about our efforts to diversify tech startup boards.
To our tireless community, thank you for powering our efforts with your time, expertise, resources, and dollars. We won’t settle for one seat at the table because we know that together, we can build a whole new house. Two years in, this is just the beginning.
Pam Kostka,
CEO of All Raise
