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Pique Fund is an early-stage impact investment fund, open to accredited and qualifying non-accredited investors. For more information on how you can invest in impactful, BC-based ventures and focus on women-led companies, contact bonnie[at]piqueventures[dot]com.
The concepts of Access to Essential Resources, impact investing as Taking Care of the Village, and Gender Lens Investing are discussed in greater detail in Bonnie Foley-Wong’s upcoming book, Integrated Investing: Impact Investing with Head, Heart, Body, and Soul. Visit integratedinvesting.ca to sign up and receive updates regarding the book’s release in Fall 2016.

 

The following is a summary of the sources of research referred to in Impact Through Leadership Diversity,  presented at the Impact Investment Forum in Vancouver, BC on May 4, 2016.

< 3% of venture-backed companies are female-led
“During the three-year period, 985 of the 6,793 venture capital–funded companies(15% of all funded businesses) had a woman on the executive team. This number rose annually from 9% in 2011 to 18% in 2013. These investments included seed, early-state, and later-stage venture capital funding. However, only 2.7% of the companies, or 183 of 6,517 companies receiving venture capital funding during this period, had a woman CEO.”

 

7% of partners at top 100 VC firms are women

 

< 25% of angel investors are women
The Center for Venture Research is a multidisciplinary research unit of the Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics  at the University of New Hampshire. It regularly researches the activity and composition of the US angel investing industry. In Q1,2 2015, the Center for Venture Research reported that women angels represented 24.2% of the angel market. Minority angels accounted for 4.9% of the angel population.

 

35% of leaders of ImpactAssets50 companies
are women
The ImpactAssets50 is a list of 50 impact investment debt and equity funds selected by Impact Assets. It is not a comprehensive list of all impact investment funds in the world. Given the diversity of the types of organizations included in the list and the variety of ways the executive and investment teams are described, the data gathering for this statistic is imperfect. However, it is indicative and directional. I first compiled this statistic in 2013 for a series of posts I wrote on socialfinance.ca. The percentage of female leaders in the ImpactAssets50 at that time was 34%. I revised the statistic in 2016 based on the current mix of 50 organizations and the percentage has not improved by much in three years.
http://impactassets.org/publications_insights/impact50

 

Companies with a female founder outperformed companies with all-male teams
First Round Capital studied their portfolio companies over a 10-year period between 2005 and 2015 and found that companies with a female founder performed 63% better than their investments with all-male founding teams. 10years.firstround.com

 

Venture-backed women-led companies are more capital efficient
The average venture-backed company run by a women had annual revenues that were 12% higher than those run by men using, on average, one-third less committed capital. “Women Not Doing It for Themselves,” Library House Newsletter, 2007: 58 as quoted by Illuminate Ventures in their 2010 whitepaper. http://www.illuminate.com/whitepaper/

 

Venture-backed women-led companies are more capital efficient
The average venture-backed company run by a women had annual revenues that were 12% higher than those run by men using, on average, one-third less committed capital. “Women Not Doing It for Themselves,” Library House Newsletter, 2007: 58 as quoted in http://www.illuminate.com/whitepaper/

 

Leadership diversity amongst investors impacts leadership diversity amongst ventures
The Diana Project found that VCs with female partners are twice as likely to invest in women founders and CEOs

 

Women-led alternative investment funds outperform
Meredith Jones has studied women-led alternative investment funds for the past four years and has noted their outperformance. Of particular interest were her two white papers, Women in Alternative Investments: A Marathon, Not a Sprint (Rothstein Kass, 2014) and Women in Alternative Investments: Building Momentum (Rothstein Kass, 2013) and her book, Women of the Street (Palgrave, 2015).

 

Teams with a female founder outperformed, however all-female teams raised less capital, generated lower revenues
http://goizueta.emory.edu/faculty/socialenterprise/documents/Questions_from_Field%20_Aug_2015_FINAL_correct.pdf

Examples of female angel investors, women-led VCs, and technology solutions for diversity
How to improve diversity
I originally provided this 18-point answer to the question “What are specific things employers can do today to build more diverse technical teams?” on Quora, but the suggestions are just as applicable to build more diverse investor communities and venture portfolios.

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.
Integrated Investing: Impact Investing with Head, Heart, Body, and Soul is coming to an online book retailer near you in Fall 2016. Visit integratedinvesting.ca to find out more.