Advanced Television

All Raise collects $11m

December 3, 2020

All Raise, a VC fund to focus on women’s equality, has this week raised $11 million toward a target of $15 million from backers including Pivotal Ventures, the investment firm of Melinda Gates; the Reid Hoffman Foundation; and GGV Capital. The money will fund expansion plans for the next three years, said Pam Kostka, All Raise’s chief executive. It previously raised $4 million in 2018.

“We’re moving as aggressively as we can to change the ecosystem,” Kostka said.

In two years, All Raise built a network of 20,000 people across four US tech hubs. The industry began adding more female investors, who now make up 13 per cent of the venture industry, compared with 9 per cent before. All Raise said it aimed to help push that number to 18 per cent by 2028.

But, it says, two-thirds of venture capital firms still have no female partners. Venture capital funding going to women entrepreneurs stagnated over the last year at around 12 per cent. Women own just 11 per cent of founder and employee equity in start-ups, according to a study conducted by Carta, a financial technology start-up.

By some measures, harassment has worsened, according to a recent survey from Women Who Tech, a nonprofit. Forty-four per cent of female founders said they had been harassed. Two-thirds said they had been propositioned for sex, up 9 per cent from 2017, and one-third said they had been groped, up 7 per cent from 2017.

Categories: Articles, Funding

Tags: