Why it’s time for a Global Bio Fund
Values are even more important now, for both Society & Business
By the time I was 8 years old I had experienced both gender violence and poverty living in both Kenya and India, so a clarity around the importance of addressing inequality formed early. At age 15, I began to channel that energy through entrepreneurship.
The idea for an organization that builds multiple ventures at the same time i.e. “Venture Builder” was first envisioned in 2011, and re-focused with values of impact, knowledge, service to others and wellbeing.
My co-founder Giorgio Reggiani also has strong personal drivers. Having grown up in male dominated, ethnically divided South Africa, Giorgio became passionate about creating gender and racially diverse role models to inspire a more diverse entrepreneurship ecosystem .
Today we also launch our broader team with Kate Rowley and Delila Khaled and the Global Advisors Network, who share our values and bring their own unique experiences and commitment for diversity and impact.
Diversity & Impact focus is the need of our current times
A new global leadership is surfacing focused on a green economic recovery. Potential technology solutions are proliferating. Our globalized societies are fundamentally shifting in a way accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. As a species, it’s dawning on us that we’re all in this together. A growing chorus are demanding more equality and expecting both governments and business to deliver on environmental and social impact goals.
Value creation is evolving beyond current short-term shareholder returns and purely financial capitalistic models. Venture capital (VC), along with large cap firms and hedge funds, also needs to evolve to better measure stakeholder value and impact using a consistent set of metrics that incorporate Environmental, Social and Governance and Sustainable Development Goals.
We need every perspective if we’re going to crack the challenges of the 21st century. We believe that by empowering diverse entrepreneurs (women and minority groups), and helping them build stronger and more inclusive teams. We believe the resulting entities are not only more sustainable - but also happier environments for ideas to flourish. A wealth of data already supports the concept that diverse workforces deliver better financial and impact returns in the medium term.
In 2019, only 3% of global venture dollars were invested in female teams, with 10% going toward mixed teams.
The lack of gender and racial diversity is also very evident in the bio sector which funds very few companies led by women and minority groups. We believe there are two root causes of this: (1) fewer early stage startups led by individuals from these groups and (2) the unconscious bias of a homogenous VC investor community.
Startups founded or cofounded by women perform better, generating 10% more in cumulative revenues compared to their male-led counterparts.
All-women and mixed-gender US fund teams also outperformed all-male portfolio management teams so far this year. Similarly, FTSE 350 companies that have at least 33% women on their executive committees have a net profit margin more than 10 times greater than companies with no women. Women also place a greater focus on ESG impact, which is increasingly demanded by global consumers and investors.
Scaling ideas and ventures: Global Bio Xcellerator and Global Bio Fund
We are passionate on addressing the gap in funding towards women and diverse teams. We operate through (1) building research and learning experiences, (2) sharing knowledge through consulting and advisory services to raise capital or scale businesses, and (3) directly investing resources through two vehicles: the Global Bio Xcellerator (GBX) and the Global Bio Fund (GBF).
Global Bio Xcellerator is our mostly digital accelerator that will provide entrepreneurship masterclasses, access to experienced mentors and coaches, and seed capital; all encapsulated in a shared knowledge base. We are carefully designing a unique support ecosystem that will build a critical mass of diverse entrepreneurs. We intend to launch in 2021.
Global Bio Fund invests in life sciences organisations that are led by women or diverse teams. Our investments, which focus on technology crossovers in health & wellbeing, food & agriculture and energy & environment are all focused on people and the planet, which we believe leads to not only to a higher quality of sustainable profits but also a higher “Net Impact Value”. We are in advanced discussions with a wide variety of exemplary partners, advisors and investors.
To our knowledge, no other enterprise in the bio sector has ever structured its focus so exclusively on accelerating and funding diverse entrepreneurs. In a time of unprecedented growth for both bio innovation and challenges to global society, we say there’s never been a better time to start.
Supporting Articles
