New Report Reveals Severe Gender Gap in European Venture Capital Funds

Gender inequality in European venture capital funds is so profound that women don’t just face an uphill climb; it’s more like scaling Everest. That’s according to the Pan-European Report by European Women in VC, sponsored in part by Alter Domus, which studied 303 European venture funds and survey responses from 122 venture capitalists at funds with over €25m in assets under management.

Women lag men in every metric, from number of GPs (85% male/15% female) to investment committee representation (83% male/17% female). They also have less access to carried interest and a slower rate of professional progression. At the current trajectory, the report suggests, it will take 135.6 years to close the gender gap.

Not all the news is negative, though. For example, while in 2021 less than 2% of venture capital money was invested with female-led start-ups, it was a record year for female-led exits and IPOs.

As part of the report, Joanne Ferris, Chief Human Resources Officer at Alter Domus, examined what companies like Alter Domus are doing to change the reality for women in the industry.

“At Alter Domus, inclusion, diversity, and innovation are at the forefront of our culture. All leaders have inclusion-based KPIs, and our ESG scorecard reflects the importance of the topic in executing our business strategy,” explains Joanne.

You can read the entire report here (hear from Joanne on page 22).