Promoting Diversity and Inclusion

Promoting Diversity and Inclusion

Our Approach

We strongly believe diverse teams will significantly outperform others in the long run. As stewards of capital and contributors to the tech ecosystem, it is in our best interest to champion efforts to build diverse teams in our portfolio companies and at our fund. We recognize that this is not a linear path but a journey we have committed to for the long term. We expect to make mistakes along the way and learn from them.

Most of all, it is our sincere hope that we can be part of a greater shift in the venture capital and technology industries recognizing the inequality with the status quo and striving to be better.

Reviewing More Companies Led by Under Represented Founders

  • After we raised Fund III in 2017, we began tracking the number of companies led by women and people of colour in our investment funnel. As of September 2020, we have started tracking founders from under-represented groups
  • As of October 2020, we are tracking our access to founders from under-represented groups, starting at the top of the funnel
  • We have widened the scope of companies/sectors we invest in (as of Fund II, we were largely focused on mobile), which has improved top-of-funnel diversity
  • Independently, the General Partners (GPs) in our fund have invested capital into funds led by GPs from underrepresented groups and spend time mentoring future GPs and angel investors.
  • We are actively building relationships with funds that have done better at backing underrepresented founders in hopes that we can participate in their deal flow.
  • We are staying active in the community and specifically hosting events (with a diverse set of speakers, guests, etc..)
  • We are putting our money where our mouth is, supporting organizations that are addressing the gaps in funding and support for underrepresented groups. We have sponsored the following:
  • We co-founded and provided the initial funding for Prospect.fyi, to democratize access to opportunities in Canada's tech ecosystem.

Diversifying Our Team and Thinking

  • We believe that to diversify the venture capital industry, we need to collectively start by increasing the number of under-represented groups that have exposure to the industry, either by working directly in the industry or receiving funding.
  • We believe that by diversifying our team and those involved in the investment decision process, more under-represented groups will be funded.
  • All team members have partaken in a Code of Conduct review.
  • We understand that unlearning is an iterative process, and we continue to strive to improve over time.
  • We believe that diversifying our team also means diversifying our investment decision-making process.
    • Our investment decisioning includes the Partners, Principals and Analysts at our fund. Everyone is encouraged to share their opinion and voice concerns along the way.

Promoting DE&I in The Companies We Back

  • We continue to proactively engage companies in how they think about DE&I in their teams pre-investment and post-investment.
  • We actively promote the creation of a diverse management team, board of directors and cap tables
  • We negotiate priority access and discounts to software tools that help our teams measure the inclusivity of their hiring processes, track belonging in their organization

The Data

  • We are tracking and sharing metrics we can follow across our fund's history. We will continue to be transparent around more comprehensive data (such as our funnel) as we build and improve our tracking mechanisms.

Portfolio Companies with Women Founders

Portfolio Companies with People of Colour Founders