Report reveals significant gender disparity in Canadian venture capital firms

Two-thirds of Venture capital investment in Canada dollars, meanwhile, are controlled by teams without women leaders, the report found. Women-owned businesses routinely struggle to access capital, but as reported by organizations such as The Diana Project, venture capital firms with women as partners are twice as likely to fund " I do not stop hearing, across the ecosystem, a very important conversation about promoting the next generation of founding women – but there is not one. enough conversations around the people who fund the future innovation of our country "Lauren Robinson, Executive Director of Female Funders and General Partner of the Highline Beta Prefinance Fund, said in an interview

that she had to turn to incomplete or US-based Canadian statistics on the venture capital industry surveyed about its gender diversity; This report, which was conducted with the private market data firm Hockeystick, the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association and the ANCA, was intended to clarify the situation and to help Canadian businesses do more. informed hiring decisions that could improve the return on investments. The findings of the report confirm the widely acknowledged reality of the lack of women in management positions in the Canadian technology industry, reflecting a similar problem across the finance spectrum.

The figures are consistent with the historic Move the Dial report released last fall. , who found a similar level in the roles of VC partners of low to moderate adolescence occupied by women. Its survey of more than 900 Canadian technology companies found that women represent only 5% of management positions and 13% of management positions, while more than half – 53% of technology companies do not women executives.

Several Canadian efforts have been made in recent months to correct the unfairness of Canadian venture capital funding. The ACCR has launched a program on diversity and inclusion; The $ 200 million Women and Technology Fund of the Business Development Bank of Canada is expected to announce its first investments imminently; MaRS launched the $ 5 million StandUp Ventures I fund, which invests in women-led businesses and is led by Michelle McBane; Elaine Kinda, a serial entrepreneur in Toronto, raises $ 30 million to launch Disruption Ventures in women-run businesses.

The federal government also insisted that companies receiving funds from its venture capital program reach $ 400 million. problem.

This year, a series of Canadian venture capital firms with no investment partners have launched or closed new funds, including Golden Ventures, White Star Capital, Georgian Partners, iNovia Capital, Yaletown Partners and Luge Capital newly created, supported by Some of the best investors in Quebec

Some of these companies say that it is not the same. they are beginning to tackle the gender imbalance in their leadership. In a recent email, Georgian Partners' vice president, Ben Wilde, said that "the Georgian has a culture of development and promotion from within" and that he would not hire directly a partner.

He added that "balanced potential candidates" for external hires, pre-selecting an equal number of women and men, with a greater number of hires since 2014. "We are confident given the balance of our staff we will see women reach the level of partner in the coming years, "wrote Mr. Wilde.

Salil Munjal, general manager of Yaletown, said at a Recent interview that the company's director, Sophie Gupta, was involved in the firm's investment decision-making and suggested that she was about to become a partner. (Her father, Shyam Gupta , is a partner.) "There is still a lot of work to be done, but the good news from Yaletown's point of view is that we are definitely starting to cover all aspects of diversity," Munjal said.

The report of Women in Ventur e revealed that in Canadian venture capital funds, zero per cent of risk partners – partners who manage investments but are not full members of a partnership – are women. Whitney Rockley, Managing Partner of McRock Capital and former President of the CVCA and current Chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Program, said this result was the most surprising. But it is also, she continued, the opportunity to recruit more women into the pipelines of managing partners and general partners

"We can bring in very successful women who have been entrepreneurs in venture capital funds. Ms. Rockley said, "and you can probably see some of these partners moving to lead partner roles as part of general partnerships."

The report also collected data on angel investments with the help of of the NACO, by badyzing self-reported breakdowns of diversity of angel investor groups. He revealed that angel groups, on average, account for only 14% of women in Canada, compared with 22% in the United States.