Meet these 5 investors trying to beat tech’s diversity gap

The tech industry has a diversity problem – despite overwhelming evidence that diversity is an important ingredient for success. Here are five VCs trying to create a more diverse tech community.

Diversity is a huge issue in the tech industry, with women, BIPOC and LGBTQ+ people being massively underrepresented at all levels. Notably, 77 percent of US founders and 84 percent of European founders are white, only three percent of VC funding goes to women-led startups, and less than one percent of startup funding goes to openly LGBTQ+ founders.

Despite these groups comprising a much larger percentage of the general population – and evidence showing that diversity plays a vital role in improved decision-making processes within organisations – women, BIPOC and LGBTQ+ people are often overlooked.

But there is cause for optimism. Many VCs are now trying to close the diversity gap by funding startups founded by people from underrepresented groups. Here are five of these VCs attending Web Summit this year.

Plain Sight Capital

Plain Sight Capital invests in pre-seed and seed B2B SaaS companies led by BIPOC and underrepresented groups. It seeks out companies with at least one underrepresented founder that can scale horizontally across industries using product-led strategies.

Founded by Alex King and Sylvester Mobley, and located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the founders and managing partners have spent years building a community for underrepresented startup founders.

Geek Ventures

Geek Ventures invests in immigrant entrepreneurs from all over the world. The company believes that the challenges immigrants often face when coming to a new environment nurture resilience and determination. Geek Ventures was founded in 2021 by Ihar Mahaniok, who had previously invested in Instacart, PandaDoc, People.ai, Airbyte and Jeeves at the pre-seed and seed stages.

Ihar founded the company after noticing the difficulties immigrant entrepreneurs encountered trying to raise capital and make connections within the US venture capital scene.

January Ventures

January Ventures invests in pre-seed startups accelerating digital transformation in work, health and climate, focusing on women and underrepresented founders. Established in 2018, the firm is based in London, UK and Boston, US.

Jennifer Keiser Neundorfer and Maren Thomas Bannon founded the company with the belief that the founders of the next decade will be fundamentally different: more female, more diverse and more distributed. Their key principles are transparency and access and backing founders based on tenacity and ambition rather than their pedigrees or networks.

Pink Salt Ventures

Pink Salt Ventures is an early-stage investment firm for women-led technology companies, partnering with entrepreneurs and helping them build lasting companies. It is the UK’s first VC for female founders. Founders Saloni Bhojwani and Samira Ann Qassim are former operators and entrepreneurs.

Established in 2019, the firm is based in London, UK, and their portfolio includes companies Alena, MPowder, Mirza, Jude, Juno Bio and Hanx.

i3 Investing

I3 is a UK-based angel syndicate founded in London in 2022 as a platform to foster ‘community, connection and capital’ for LGBTQ+ founders and investors. The syndicate, which includes more than 50 investors, was founded by Christian Tooley.

Christian believes that LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs innately have the skills and resilience to build winning startups because of the barriers they have had to overcome throughout their lives. I3 is more than just investing and aims to facilitate connection and community building among LGBTQ+ startups and investors.

Some of the world’s leading investors will be at Web Summit in Lisbon this November. Check out who’s attending.

Image Credit: Web Summit