Edie Lush

Investing in women makes sense

Edie G. Lush says women have a strong track record as entrepreneurs and managers, yet struggle to find support from Britain’s male-dominated venture capital community

Women are under-served by the venture capital community
Herta von Stiegel, executive chairman of Stargate Capital Investments

told me at a recent Pi Capital lunch. I’m not entirely surprised by her comment, but I’m intrigued enough to investigate further.

The figures back up von Stiegel’s statement. In the UK, according to Management Today, about 25 per cent of the top 100 entrepreneurs are women. Yet less than 2.5 per cent out of a total of €3.5 billion of VC funding in the UK and Europe is going to companies with a female chief executive. The numbers are little better in North America. Nearly half of all privately-owned US businesses are at least 50 per cent owned by women; four out of five start-ups in Canada are run by women; US businesses owned by women have a two-year success rate of 80 per cent, well over the national average of about 50 per cent. Yet just 5.7 per cent out of a total of more than $20 billion of VC funding in North America goes to companies with female bosses.