Did you know that only 16% of VC firms invest in mixed or female founded startups ? And that 87% of VC firms in the Netherlands have zero women investors ?
Simone introduced us to the topic of diversity in a business field with these statistics. Often overlooked, but even more important numbers that surprised many of us. Because of these figures, pointing to the lack of diversity in business, the Fundright movement was born. It is a VC-initiated movement aimed at ensuring a more diverse ecosystem, at both the VC level and portfolio company level. Standing for a more inclusive future with equal access to funding and opportunity for all founders is the commitment of Fundright.
During her career, Simone noticed a very low number of female founders in a digital environment. Therefore, the idea of the Borski Fund was created to support mostly teams composed of both genders or give a chance to female entrepreneurs. Simone emphasized the fact that diversity in a team can help to change the way a team is looking at their company and is more capable to see points of improvement. Throughout the event, Simone discussed the reasons for the existence of the funding gap and its consequences. She considers bias as being one of the main reasons for the funding gap, along with a lack of broad network potential female entrepreneurs may have. Related to that, she described how important is a type of business that wants to get funded. She noticed that a lot of fund companies invest in SaaS enterprises and they are not interested much in health companies or consumer-oriented ones. She also notes a differentiation in questioning when it comes to the female candidates for funding. Women usually get prevention questions related to their business while men candidates are asked about the promotion phase of their business. This funding gap leads to the innovation gap where ideas that could help society have never got funded.
Having female entrepreneurs in a business world can help to build innovations in fields with which male entrepreneurs are not familiar enough like femtech or the fashion industry with a big sustainability view.
