Beyond The Billion, a global consortium of venture capital (VC) funds and limited partner (LP) investors, released Our First Billion Global Impact Report. This assessed the results of their two-year campaign. The campaign aims to address the gender venture funding gap where women founders only received 2.2 percent of venture capital. Beyond The Billion inspired venture capitalists to pledge to invest more into women-founded companies. While the pledges made were not legally binding, the results demonstrate that participating funds have taken their commitment seriously.
More about the report
This report received support from Pacific Western Bank, Mastercard, Bank of America and Motley Fool Ventures. It found that the consortium deployed 61 percent, or $638 million of their pledged amount in just two years. These funds went to almost 800 women-founded companies. Nine of these companies were unicorns. The remainder will be deployed by 2023.
“Innovative women founders are solving some of the world’s most pressing problems. Our partner funds helped so many of them. Even as they enable women-led companies to scale, these savvy VCs are improving their returns,” said Shelly Porges, Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Beyond The Billion.
Sarah Chen, Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Beyond The Billion added, “These results are a testament to the collective power of our community of investors activated around a specific goal. Despite the global pandemic, our partner funds have remained steadfast in their commitment to invest in women founders. They could address real structural issues in closing the gender venture funding gap.”
Kay Parry, Managing Director, Venture Banking of Pacific Western Bank that sponsored this report added, “There is growing recognition in the venture industry that great ideas and successful entrepreneurs can come from anywhere. The best returns come from diverse teams. This recognition extends to the LP community where we consistently hear that diversity within portfolios is part of their process. We’re excited by the progress made in 2021. We remain committed to working toward the goal of a private investment industry that more fully reflects the breadth and depth of innovators and risk-takers in our country.”
To view the full press release, click here.
To download the full report, click here.
About Beyond The Billion
Beyond the Billion’s first pledge campaign launched in October 2018. It had an audacious goal of catalyzing $1 billion for women founders globally. This could address the gender venture investment gap where women were receiving only 2.2 percent of all venture capital funding. Building on this momentum, founders Shelly Porges and Sarah Chen launched Beyond The Billion. They wanted to catalyze capital deployed to and with these venture funds. They could ensure continued investment by mobilizing limited partners (LPs) and connecting them to general partners (GPs) who invest in venture-backable companies founded by diverse women.
About Pacific Western Bank
Pacific Western Bank is a commercial bank with over $34 billion in assets. The venture banking team specializes in financial products and services for startups, venture-backed businesses and their venture capital and private equity investors. The experienced team is committed to the space and dedicated to delivering high-touch, tailored solutions, helping innovators take their business to the next level.
Add Comment