Good news for investors and startups: According to Statista, the global ones were
Venture capital investment of $ 274 billion. 2018 was a record year.
However, it is no great achievement that the proportion of women in top positions in venture capital (VC) is still below ten percent worldwide.
A little bit confident is the proportion of female investors
Thus, the proportion of female partners in the top 100 rose
Venture capital firms in 2017 compared to the previous year at least by 17 percent; the share of women in partner positions in so-called accelerators or corporate ventureseven increased by 25 percent. And 21 percent of the new Micro VCs have been in the last few years founded by women three years ago.
Alone among men
Of course, these figures are still a long way from a parity distribution. That Germany is an exception here is highly doubtful. At least that’s me during my career, only a few women encountered it in the male-dominated VC world into leading positions. Women like Kiana Mardi, Investment Director at Alstin, Romy Schnelle, Partner at High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), Dr. Ing.
Jeannette zu Fürstenberg, Founder and Managing Partner of La Famiglia, Marie-Helene Ametsreiter, Partner at Speedinvest or Dr. Ing. Alexandra Bause, Founding Partner at Apollo Ventures are an exception to the rule. That’s why I asked her like her are very personal experiences in venture capital and, in their opinion need to change so that it can finally create more women in senior positions.
Mixed teams mean a strong portfolio
What unites the five women: All have had positive experiences. Although they often alone among men, they have always received support and trust from their supervisors and teams. For example, the Alstin team believes that different mindsets and an open discourse lead to better investment decisions. A principle that also applies to HTGF, where, according to Romy Schnelle, the proportion of women in investment management has been rising for years.
Jeannette zu Fürstenberg even has the impression that the female perspective is valued above all by its founders and others in a male-dominated technology world
Sets accents. Quite similar to Marie-Helene Ametsreiter, who is convinced that just in the early stage area, where there is a strong emphasis on the choice of founders and their personalities arrives, women have a good sense.
The pros and cons of the quota
Despite these positive impressions, the fact remains that women worldwide are in the venture Capital are underrepresented. That’s why committed women founded the initiative allraise.org in the United States, which campaigns for greater diversity among investors and founders. Should such initiatives be a role model for Germany or need consistent measures such as a quota? Under clearly defined conditions, Kiana Mardi supports such regulations.
Getting more women to the sector
Regards to Fürstenberg but considers a regulation to be wrong, also because of Bureaucracy in areas such as FinTech and banking is already very high today. A Quote would be an additional burden. Alexandra Bause also does not consider her the right way to attract more women to the VC sector. The meaningfulness of the quota is thus controversial, but there is agreement among the five that something has to change. Among other things, women need more support in order to better trust their own abilities. For Alexandra Bause, this requires more mentoring, both from women and men, which inspire women for venture capital and entrepreneurship and work for them.
Founders also benefit from it when they are in Germany gives more VC women in management positions
Because currently are in this country just under 20 percent of the founders are female, and these often have with the to fight prejudices of male investors. The majority of them, namely 53 percent, fails at these ready-made opinions of men. So it’s high time for change, both in venture capital and in the start-up sector full potential can be exploited.