Ladi Greenstreet, CEO of Diversity VC

Accurate, up-to-date data on female-led companies is helping Diversity VC advise venture capitalists on their diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

Diversity VC is a membership organisation for venture capital, dedicated to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion across the industry to unlock its full economic potential. Combining VC sectoral and specialist DEI expertise, we provide the resources, support and network required for firms to create bespoke DEI strategies, empowering VCs to instigate change.  

As venture capitalists, we recognise our role in encouraging innovation and are at our best when fostering diverse perspectives and unconventional views on the future. Yet historically, we have bypassed this key ingredient, creating imbalance in the scales of opportunity and hindering our economy.

 In 2016, we initiated critical dialogue with the formation of Diversity VC, challenging norms and advocating for the advancement of diversity, equity and inclusion to unlock venture capital’s full potential within the British economy. We have built credibility as the first mover in the sector providing data, and to do this we have established a deep understanding of where the industry has come from and where it needs to go. Our key differentiator is our intersectional approach to data collection. 

For our 2023 UK Equity Record, we needed a broader perspective on demographic data, taking a deep dive into socioeconomic diversity, as well as gender and ethnicity data. Not only did we want to look at who the UK’s venture capital ecosystem consisted of, but for the first time we wanted to measure how they were feeling about their funds’ DEI progress. These intersectional perspectives reveal a richer picture of human experience and have enabled us to create a set of actionable tools we can tailor to individual businesses that VCs can use to drive change within and though their firms. 

The Gender Index data provided the foundation for all our research. We were able to gain a rich and detailed picture of the gender makeup and breakdown of the venture capital ecosystem. Using that as a base, we then used survey data and other tools to augment the demographic data provided by The Gender Index. We now have an incredible intersectional dataset that enables us to go beyond demographics to capture the sentiments of those in our ecosystem, becoming ever richer. We couldn’t have done this without the bedrock data and insights provided by The Gender Index.