How Can We Increase Gender Diversity in the PE/VC space? (Yahel Halamish)
Nina Capital and Level 20 recently published a report about gender diversity in the PE/VC space on the Spanish market. Research showed that in aggregate, women represent 30% of the workforce. Only 17% of senior roles positions are held by women.
Nina Capital is a Barcelona-based specialized venture capital firm investing in early-stage startups at the intersection of healthcare and technology. Level 20 is a not-for-profit organization founded in 2015 by 12 women working in senior roles in private equity, aligned around a common vision of improving gender diversity in the industry.
In September they released a Gender Diversity in the Private Equity and Venture Capital in Spain Report, that while the numbers of women in the VC space is increasing, they represent a very small portion of the workforce in senior roles.
Women make up 38% of the private equity and venture capital workforce. Overall, 20% of investment team professionals are women, 10 % in senior investment roles.
Part of the reason, says Yahel Halamish, Nina’s Head of Investor Relations and Diversity & Inclusion Officer, is the slowly changing culture, lack of awareness of job opportunities in the VC and private equity sector, and not enough effort put in increasing gender and other diversity.
As she explains in the interview, the qualitative analysis showed that many companies struggle to increase diversity through their hiring efforts. “My personal perspective is that increasing diversity needs an active approach. On many occasions, hires are made through head hunters. So tell your head hunter to source for women and actively search them. A second idea would be that, if a company is looking at junior positions, they could actively go to university to search for talent. An industry that is doing well in sourcing female candidates is for example consulting. Big consultant companies have a very active approach to the search for female candidates. I think if you want to get to the diversification, if you want to increase your dorms, you need to be active about it.”
This is the reality today and hopefully, over time, less effort will have to be made for the diverse applications to arrive at HR offices.
Questions addressed:
The British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (BVCA) is and Level 20 - a non-profit organisation, created to drive gender diversity in private equity recently published results of the diversity and inclusion survey. It included 186 firms, with over 8,700 employees in UK and Europe. Before we discuss the results. Why does diversity matter in the VC space?
What is the diversity structure at nina capital?One of the reasons behind the report was to get a picture of diversity in the investment space in Spain. In a blogpost you wrote that you track diversity in the companies we evaluate for investment, and those that join our portfolio. How do you do the tracking? (What can other VCs learn from you)
At the moment, the VC industry is still male-dominated - women represent 30% of the workforce. Only 17% of senior roles positions are held by women. When we looked at senior investment roles, we found that only 14% of positions are held by women. Is this trend in any way changing? Was it worse 3-5 years ago according to your observation?
Women are in the majority at the junior levels but the proportion of women decreases with seniority, and only 15% of senior professionals are women
In the current state of the industry, as you write in the report - underrepresentation is caused by a lack of awareness of the existence of the PE/VC industry and its career paths amongst young people; misperceptions about the industry amongst those who are aware. What can VC companies do to increase diversity? In practical terms?
How far should efforts go: for example, If there are only male candidates when a VC firm has an opening - what should they do?
Can you mention any other women-led VC firms apart from Nina capital?
Women startup founders often find themselves in rooms dominated by male investors. Investor panels are often male-dominated due to the nature of the industry.
Read also: a commentary about the report written by Nina Capital.