Venture capital is still a boys club
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Over 91% of decision-makers at U.S. venture capital firms are men, according to a new Axios analysis.
The upside: The nearly 9% mark for women is an increase from 7% at this time in 2017 and from 5.7% in 2016.
The downside: It's still single-digit territory, despite a year of heavy emphasis on the venture industry's gender imbalance.
The methodology: PitchBook provided a list of all U.S.-based VC firms that had raised at least one fund of at least $100 million between 2013 and 2017. We then examined the firms' websites to determine the decision-making level of investment management, sometimes using supplemental information like SEC filings. We excluded administrative staffers (COO, CFO, IR, marketing, etc.). In short, we were looking for people who can write checks.
Specific numbers: We found 91 of 1,015 decision-makers at 232 U.S.-based VC firms were were women, compared to 72 out of 1,019 last year at 227 firms. Remember that the sample changes a bit, due to a different 5-year fundraising period.
