As part of our Commitment to Diversity, Anti-Racism, and Allyship — originally crafted in 2020, the M25 team is proud to release our first diversity report.
In 2020, our firm published a commitment to address the prevalent diversity and inclusion issues in venture capital. Among other calls to action, we pledged to begin an effort to collect race and gender data on our portfolio (which we have always done) and the intro calls we take with prospective investments.
We’re proud to release our first ever Diversity Report, a culmination of the data collection we started in October 2020. We’re offering it for download here.
While we know the work to bring parity to venture capital and equal funding to underrepresented startups is ongoing, we are encouraged by what this first year of data shows. Of note in this report: nearly half of the portfolio companies M25’s current fund are helmed by underrepresented founders. In addition, the percentage of our intro calls with founders who identify as women beats industry averages for VC funding to women, and the number of calls with founders who identify as Black outpaces the demographic statistics of the Midwest, where we invest. In addition, nearly half of our firm’s deployed capital (initial, follow-on, and SPVs) has gone to underrepresented founders.
As a firm, we strive to see every deal in the Midwest, and we welcome all kinds of introductions as well as cold emails for investment consideration. In addition, our team proactively seeks out pitch events and accelerator mentorship across the region. We are not a social impact fund, nor do we have a set diversity mandate, but it is our hope that by meeting entrepreneurs where they are, we can play a key role in increasing funding for underrepresented founders in the Midwest.
Check out the full report here.
