In 2010, Illuminate Ventures, an early-stage high-tech venture capital firm focused on enterprise cloud and mobile computing led by Cindy Padnos, published a ground-breaking white paper, pronouncing loudly that diversity improves performance.
In Illuminate Ventures’ research, they noted that on average venture-backed women-led companies had annual revenues 12% higher than their male-led peers, using one-third less capital. They also pointed out that women-founded companies have lower failure rates. Quoting from the report, “Organizations that are the most inclusive of women in top management achieve 35% higher ROE and 34% better total return to shareholders versus their peers – and research shows gender diversity to be particularly valuable where innovation is key.” These are some of the highlights from Illuminate Ventures’ finding.
Five years after Illuminate Venture’s whitepaper was published, in 2015, First Round Capital, an innovative venture capital firm that specializes in providing seed-stage funding to technology companies, provided further evidence. It their 10-year review of their venture portfolio, First Round reported that female founders of companies in its portfolio outperformed their male peers.
Diversity is good for business, without a doubt. At Pique Fund, we recognized this and designed our investment strategy to focus on women-led companies. Leadership Diversity is one of our main investment themes, along with Social Technology and Creative Economy.
Find out how investors in Pique Fund are diversifying their portfolio and investing in diversity.
If you’re interested in investing in the growth, impact, and in Leadership Diversity of early-stage companies in BC, sign up to the Pique Ventures newsletter to receive information about the impact investment opportunities, products, and services we offer.
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Pique Ventures helps investors make an impact by integrating the critical information investors need to make effective, risk-managed decisions. We manage Pique Fund (Pique Venture Investments (VCC)) and also provide products and services such as deal origination, venture evaluation, due diligence, and fund development.
Pique Fund is an impact investment fund where you can make a difference with your investment dollars, in the company of other like-minded people. You can also read more about Pique Fund here.
RT @Pique_V: At #BCTECHSummit today? Think about how you can diversify your portfolio: https://t.co/oAXKa4ojlL #impinv #womenintech #PiqueF…