As the tech and startup industry has put an emphasis on getting more women into the growing sector, the investor community has followed.
New data from All Raise, an organization advocating for women in tech and investing, shows that across U.S. venture capital firms with more than $25 million in assets under management, 52 women became VC partners or general partners for the first time in 2019—the highest figure since All Raise began gathering this type of data in 2017. In 2018, only 38 women became partners.
Though the increase is encouraging, 65 percent of firms still don’t have a single female partner or general partner at their firm, according to the data. Additionally, while 52 women became partners in 2019, 71 men also reached partner status.
The picture is even worse for women of color. The data shows that just one black women was named partner and that no Latinx women became partners in 2019.
Because of San Francisco’s concentration of VC firms, the Bay Area was home to 62 percent of the women named partners in 2019. It was followed by New York at 17 percent and Chicago at 8 percent. Seattle (4 percent) and Boston (2 percent) followed the Windy City.
Over the last few years, Chicago’s tech and VC community has focused on elevating women entrepreneurs and investors.
Chicago Blend, a venture capitalist-led organization working to diversify Chicago’s tech ecosystem, launched in 2018. Its data shows that of all Chicago venture capitalists, 28 percent are women.
Last year, Pritzker Group Venture Capital, one of Chicago’s most active venture capital firms, promoted Sonia Nagar to partner, which at the time was its first female partner in 10 years.
And Samara Hernandez, a Latinx woman and Chicago investor known for her time at MATH Venture Partners, recently launched her own venture fund to invest in startups founded by female and racially diverse entrepreneurs. Chicago Blend’s data shows that only 1 percent of Chicago female VCs identify as Latinx.
The raw data shows that there are only two female Latinx VCs in Chicago, meaning Hernandez is likely the first and only Latinx woman in Chicago to launch her own venture firm.
