LGBTQ+ Founder Office Hours: Meet The Investors — Part I
The conversation around diversity and inclusion in tech has picked up momentum this year. And, while there have been strides in ensuring that tech is employed for good, there remains a lot of work to be done to truly level the playing field. Anthemis held its first Virtual Office Hours event earlier this year, focusing on female founders. Inspired by our friends Playfair Capital’s work in Europe, the event connected venture capitalists (VCs) with female founders across the US, resulting in 180+ investor-founder matches. For as long as I have been involved in technology, I have believed strongly that technology needs to put underserved communities front and centre. While, as with the technology sector, the diversity issue for VC is not only a pipeline problem, I have noticed the power of the network effect is so much stronger in the VC community — and just knowing more people who are underserved brings with it a chance of seeing more founders from those communities.
As a bi man, I am committed to bringing the LGBTQ+ community into VC in a more visible way. According to data gathered by Backstage Capital, fewer than one percent of US deals go to LGBTQ+ founders, with 37 percent of entrepreneurs from the community choosing not to ‘out’ themselves to investors, according to StartOut. Out LGBTQ+ people have faced discrimination in funding for a long time; collectively, I think we can do better. We announced LGBTQ+ Office Hours in collaboration with StartOut and Series Q as a way of providing cross-industry support to under-represented founders.
At Anthemis, diversity is core to our DNA. Currently, 52 percent of our employees are women, compared to a VC industry average of 27 percent (Diversity VC, 2019). Our team represents 14 nationalities, and 16 languages are spoken. 50 percent of our investment team come from non-traditional professional backgrounds (i.e. outside of banking/finance and VC). In terms of sexual and gender identities, 10 percent of the team are LGBTQ+. It is logical that success in addressing one area of diversity enables success in another. Anthemis has been a firm leader for women founders and investors, and I believe that is one of the reasons why we track so highly on LGBTQ+ people. My only hope is that we can truly push what it means to be diverse beyond our current focus on race, gender and orientation, turning our attention to disability, class, education and other less supported groups. The backing we have received so far from StartOut and Series Q has been phenomenal, and has reminded me that there is an incredible global community ready to support all of us LGBTQ+ folks, if only we reach out and take the first step.
I hope that whoever is reading this is inspired to self-advocate — if you are an LGBTQ+ or ally investor, or an LGBTQ+ founder, get in touch and apply for the event. We have amazing investors taking part who we will be introducing this week.
Anthemis — Sean Park and Ruth Foxe Blader
Stage: Pre-Seed — Series A
Sector: Fintech
Anthemis is an investment firm focused on cultivating change in financial services by investing in and building businesses committed to improving the world. We are founded on three guiding principles — authentic collaboration, virtuous cycle outcomes, and diversity and inclusivity — and our deep understanding of markets and models, passion for emerging technology, and values inspire everything we do. Our goal is to reinvent finance by bringing together and investing in talented entrepreneurs, thoughtleaders, institutions and change-agents in the world of finance to solve the financial services’ most pressing challenges faster, better and for the benefit of all.
Acceleprise — Pranavi Cheemakurti
Stage: Pre-Seed and Seed
Sector: B2B SaaS
Acceleprise is one of the first SaaS-focused accelerators in the United States. Acceleprise provides entrepreneurs an opportunity to tap into the company’s extensive network of great enterprise companies, mentors and investors. Acceleprise focuses on investing in very early stage companies that are solving highly targeted vertical or horizontally specific pain points with an easy-to-use application and has a team in place with the relevant operating experience to make it happen.
Dylan Itzkowitz — Founders Factory
Stage: Pre-seed and Seed
Sector: Generalist
Founders Factory was established to help early stage companies become viable and sustainable businesses rapidly. The company has a blend of what early stage companies require: expedited pre-seed funding, agile technology development, lean acceleration and world class mentors. All their mentors have started companies and sold them. They have experienced the pitfalls and know the challenges and have put in the time developing the networks, contacts and industry connections needed to turn the next good idea into a great business. That idea could come from you, and that next great business might be the one they help you start.
Lorenzo Thione — Gaingels
Stage: Seed -Late Stage
Sector: Generalist
Gaingels is the leading venture investment syndicate in service of the LGBTQ+ community and its allies. The firm is committed to investing in the best VC-backed companies with diverse and inclusive leadership teams.
NOEMIS Ventures — Simeon Iheagwam
Stage: Seed
Sector: Commerce
NOEMIS Ventures is a venture capital fund investing and partnering with early stage companies to empower and pursue growth. Established in 2017, the fund is headquartered in New York. Notable investments include Squire, Markanle and Petal.
Playfair Capital — Simon Blakey
Stage: Early Stage
Sector: Generalist
Playfair Capital is an early stage fund that commits to companies early and with conviction. Based in London, Playfair combines the best aspects of angel investing with a focused fund, to invest in truly ambitious founders, wherever they are in the world. Playfair takes a sector-agnostic approach and investments span deep tech, SaaS, marketplaces and B2B companies. We have backed the founders of more than 50 companies including CryptoFacilities, Mapillary, Ravelin, Stripe, Thought Machine and Trouva.
Wayra UK — Bruno Moraes
Stage: Seed
Sectors: Technology, media and telecom
Wayra UK democratizes entrepreneurship by providing unparalleled access to networks and capital, turning startups into scale-ups, and promoting UK diversity. The firm has already accelerated almost 300 startups and invested in 193 of them. Wayra scales startups by giving them access not only to investment but also to business development opportunities with some of the world’s largest companies. The firm is part of a larger group that runs seven hubs in Europe and Latin America, reaching the entrepreneurial ecosystems of 10 countries. This makes Wayra one of the world’s most global, connected and technological innovation hubs.
