Max Zhang’s Post

Next week Mari Luukkainen, Principal at identity.vc I Backing LGBTQ+ Entrepreneurs, will be joining us for a fireside chat at Epicenter Helsinki's upcoming event, "Wok€ - Investing in Diversity for Tomorrow’s Returns" - the latest in the HIRED series. Mari is at the forefront of Europe's venture capital scene, focusing on empowering LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs through identity.vc, Europe's first VC dedicated to investing in early-stage startups led by LGBTQ+ founders. With over two decades of experience in growth operations and venture capital, Mari has been instrumental in scaling companies like Freska, Paxful, and Yousician. As a former Principal at Icebreaker.vc, Mari managed a portfolio of over 100 startups, steering them towards successful seed and Series A funding rounds. Their profound impact includes skyrocketing Freska's ARR from €200K to €13M in just two years and amplifying investments in diverse founding teams. Mari's dedication to fostering diversity and breaking conventional norms in entrepreneurship has earned them prestigious accolades, including the 2022 Investor of the Year at the Nordic Women in Tech Awards and the 2023 Diversity Role Model of the Year at the Nordic Startup Awards. Don’t miss the opportunity to hear Mari share insights on the significance of diversity in venture capital, the challenges and triumphs of supporting LGBTQIA+ founders, and the broader impact of inclusive investing on innovation and societal progress. https://lnkd.in/dG8fZeUD

The next Unicorns should be LGBTQ-owned — and I’m not talking about the horses. 🦄 Queer founders produce 36 percent more jobs and 114 percent more patents than the industry average, and one report released by Morgan Stanley last year found that 45 percent of all U.S. investors want opportunities to invest specifically in LGBTQ diversity and inclusion. This number spikes to 76 percent for investors who have at least one LGBTQ person in the household. But in venture capital, the investment buzz is nowhere near as potent: Less than 0.5 percent of overall funding goes to queer founders. In our recent political climate, outness can be seen as a liability to investors wanting to de-risk as much as possible; as such, many founders admit going back into the closet when it comes time to raise funds, and that’s, well, shitty. In my newest finance column for Out magazine, I spoke to the founders of various LGBTQ VC organizations to better understand our progress gaps. Discrimination and the antiquated perception that queer people are weaker are sadly still factors. But so is a lack of awareness among queer people themselves that many funding arms, incubators, accelerators and LGBTQ-friendly organizations already exist. A unicorn is a long-standing moniker for a company that achieves a valuation of a billion dollars or more. Often, those companies reach the stratosphere not only because of a good idea, but also because the founder was able to get into the right rooms with the right people at the right time. More queer unicorns would cultivate both economic parity and a better world, and there’s a whole community of investors and mentors who want to help starry-eyed founders make it happen. Thank you to my sources for your time - Brian Richardson Megan Kashner Patrick Driscoll Ben Stokes Tristan Schukraft - and their organizations: Chasing Rainbows Colorful Capital StartOut #lgbtq #pridemonth #pridemonth2024 #lgbt #venturecapital https://lnkd.in/gZz6txV9

We're excited to announce that we've completed the first close of our €50M fund, raising €15M to support LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs across Europe and beyond. This is the first fund of its kind in European tech, and we’re dedicated to backing founders who often face unique challenges in securing capital. We’re looking to invest between €250k and €1.5M in around 25 startups, from pre-seed to Series A stages. Half of the fund is reserved for follow-on investments to support these companies as they grow. The need for this fund is clear: 35% of LGBTQ+ founders feel their identity affects their ability to raise capital, and 75% don’t disclose their LGBTQ+ status to investors. By creating a supportive and inclusive environment, we aim to change this narrative and build stronger, more open relationships between founders and investors. We’ve already invested in companies like Frontnow, which optimizes pre-sales in e-commerce with AI; Omni, offering vegan dog food and cultivated cat food; and PaxtonAI, an AI legal assistant. Our leadership team includes Til Klein 🏳️🌈 🇪🇺 from Zurich, an ex-BCG partner and FinTech founder; Jochen Beutgen from Berlin, a veteran venture capital investor with 20+ years of experience; and Mari Luukkainen from Helsinki, a former growth operator and pre-seed investor. We invite you to join us in transforming the venture capital landscape and backing LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs! Learn more at www.identity.vc or feel free to reach out to us directly! https://lnkd.in/dy8rfbDX

identity.vc I Backing LGBTQ+ Entrepreneurs achieved a first milestone of $15 million for its $50 million target fund #IdentityVC, a Berlin-based #VC firm, is bringing vital capital and community support to Europe’s LGBTQ+ startup scene. Founded by Til Klein 🏳️🌈 🇪🇺 and Jochen Beutgen, Identity.vc is on a mission to empower early-stage companies with LGBTQ+ founders or executives. In 2023, Til Klein and Jochen Beutgen launched Identity.vc with a vision to create a dedicated venture firm for the European LGBTQ+ startup community. They are currently raising a €50 million debut fund and have closed €15 million so far. The firm invests in early-stage companies, writing checks ranging from €250,000 to €1.5 million from pre-seed to Series A stages. They also brought on Mari Luukkainen as a principal, leveraging her extensive operating and investing experience to strengthen their team. The fund has garnered positive feedback from limited partners (LPs) seeking diversification. Notable investments include support from prominent European investors, and the strategy aligns with a Morgan Stanley survey indicating that 45% of U.S. investors are looking to back LGBTQ+ founders. Identity.vc is sector-agnostic and invests in Europe and beyond. Their portfolio already includes innovative companies like eco.mio, a software plugin for managing business travel’s environmental impact, and Paxton AI, an AI legal tech firm. The firm emphasizes the importance of creating a trusted relationship between LGBTQ+ founders and their investors, ensuring founders can be their authentic selves. Identity.vc is also focused on building a robust community. They have launched a Slack channel with 300 members and held events in Madrid, Amsterdam, and Paris, creating spaces for LGBTQ+ founders and investors to connect and support each other. These initiatives help drive deal flow and provide startups with access to additional sources of capital. The article on TechCrunch in the first comment. Want to stay up to date with the market? Here my newsletter: - Linkedin: https://lnkd.in/d4h8zqKA  - Substack: https://lnkd.in/dzfGJzmW

Today’s VC Spotlight 💡 Colorful Capital, launched by Megan Kashner and William Burckart, aims to address the funding gap faced by LGBTQ+ founders in the U.S. #venturecapital landscape 🏳️🌈 With a mission to deliver capital and support to an undervalued community of business leaders, Colorful Capital seeks to bring investor attention to the fundraising hurdles faced by LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs and the potential for growth within their businesses 🚀 By breaking down capital barriers, Colorful Capital aims to drive returns, unlock value, and provide benefits to the #LGBTQ+ community. With a potential pipeline of thousands of LGBTQ+ founders and enterprises, Colorful Capital plans to focus on seed and pre-seed rounds, with investments of up to $1 million in sectors such as food and agriculture, climate tech, media and entertainment, consumer products and services, B2B SaaS, and personal care and health. The firm also aims to align incentives with #LGBTfounders to drive collective success and intent 🙌 In addition to launching Colorful Capital, Megan Kashner and Martín De Leon conducted research on the LGBTQ+ experience in #venturefunding. Their study, "Barriers & Exclusion," highlighted the challenges faced by LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs, including limited access to early-stage capital and discrimination during fundraising. This research underscores the importance of Colorful Capital's mission and its commitment to addressing the funding disparities in the venture capital landscape. Explore their study here 👉 https://lnkd.in/guasyfXK https://lnkd.in/gKiT2v_P

Welcome to the start of Pride month.🌈 8 million adults in the US identify as being a part of the LGBTQ+ community, however there remains a huge percentage of people lacking safe access to healthcare experts. It is estimated that “upward of a third of trans people are actively discriminated against in healthcare settings”- Jerrica Kirkley, MD Co-Founder and CMO at Plume. LGBTQ+ patients often face stigma in their healthcare experiences, and in turn this discrimination fuels an understandable distrust of the medical industry. We’re proud to work with amazing startups such as FOLX Health, whose digital healthcare services are designed for the LGBTQ+ community, with a completely online model which centres patient comfort. 📲 Pre- 2020, there weren’t any investor-backed digital health companies in the U.S. exclusively focused on serving LGBTQ+ individuals (Rock Health). 🚩However it is estimated that less than 1% of venture capital goes to openly LGBTQ+ founders. So whilst it is amazing to think how far we’ve come, there is certainly a longer way to go... Here’s a great list of VCs who centre LGBTQ and other historically underrepresented founders in their portfolios and a shout out to Asya Bradley 🌈 who I know shares the same mission. #vc #inclusivity #LBGTQ #healthtech #digitalhealth #founders #startups

We couldn’t be more proud to have Ben Stokes and Patrick Driscoll as part of the #VCI family. The co-GPs of Chasing Rainbows – an early-stage venture fund focused on investing in LGBTQ+ founded companies – are alums of 2023 VCI Fellowship Cohort III and are filling a critical, yet underserved, need in the investment industry. Their unique experiences and perspectives, and the work they are doing through Chasing Rainbows, are vital to de-homogenizing the venture space and making the alternative investment industry a more colorful, representative, and profitable place. Learn more about their important work here - https://lnkd.in/dGS_4VFc #diversityandinclusion #impactinvesting #esg #fundmanagers #venturecapital #DiversityInVC #ImpactinAction #emergingmanagers #alternateinvestments #vc #pe #dei

European tech knows it has a gender diversity problem. 👎 A new report from SISTA and Boston Consulting Group (BCG), that covers 1,788 startups across France, the UK, Spain, Germany and Sweden, looks at how Europe fared for gender diversity in 2022. And progress was... limited. 👉 Only 10% of startups were founded by women-only teams, while 12% consisted of gender-mixed teams. 👉 The average amount raised by women-only teams is around four times lower than that raised by men-only teams. 👉 As rounds gets larger, the involvement of women gets smaller. Alexandra Bacon has more data insights below. #genderdiversity #gender #startuplife #startuptech #womenintech #womenentrepreneurs

Despite remarkable strides toward gender equality in various domains, a stark reality persists: female entrepreneurs receive substantially less venture capital funding compared to their male counterparts. Recent stats show: 🇦🇺 In the 2021-22 Financial Year, of the AU$10 billion dollars of venture investment in Australia, only AU$70 million went to start-ups run by women only. 🇺🇸 In the US, start-ups funded by the top VCs are nearly 90% male. Unveiling the factors behind this disparity is crucial for fostering a more inclusive and equitable startup ecosystem. These include: 💥 Bias in Funding Allocation 💥 Limited Access to Networks 💥 Under-representation in Venture Capital Firms 💥 Risk Perception 💥 Pitching Challenges Read more: https://lnkd.in/gZ5Bsgib #femalefounders #venturecapital #investment #femaleentrepreneur #investinwomen #startup

Absolutely amazing to see women having a tremendous impact on India’s booming startup ecosystem. In 2017, India had roughly 6,000 startups, of which 10% were led by female founders, and by 2022, it increased to 80,000, and the share of women-led startups rose to 18%. Achieving gender equality within the startup ecosystems is integral in ensuring innovation and creativity is a long-term endeavour. #womenledstartups #entrepreneurship #startupecosystem