Uneven Progress: How Attitudes and Actions Are Evolving and What Continues to Hold the VC Industry Back
Traditional VCs are less likely to prioritize or take action toward investing in multicultural-founded companies when compared to women or multicultural VCs.
Can VCs Turn New Focus on Race and Inequality Into Long-Term Impact?
While we have observed a shift in attitudes and actions to address racial inequality in the VC space in the past year, that shift hasn’t prevailed among white men, who make up the majority of the VC industry.(3)
Our survey found clear indications that traditional VCs actively think about racial diversity among their portfolio company founders: 59% say BLM has affected their investment strategy and only 17% expressed satisfaction with the number of multicultural entrepreneurs in their portfolios. Traditional VCs’ attitudes have shifted toward more inclusivity in the past year, but a gap still exists between them and women and multicultural VCs. Traditional VCs are much less likely to believe that it is possible to maximize profits by investing in diverse entrepreneurs, and they are less likely to have taken actions to address racial representation among their portfolio company founders.
Compared to women and multicultural VCs, traditional VCs are less likely to believe that they can have profitable investment strategies that emphasize diverse entrepreneurs, and they are less likely to have taken action.
Read more in Morgan Stanley's report: Venture Capital and Racial Equality
(3) NVCA-Deloitte Human Capital Survey (2018). Diversity & Inclusion in the VC Industry. https://www2.deloitte.com/content/campaigns/us/audit/survey/diversity-venture-capital-human-capital-survey- dashboard.html
