We have qualified for The Diversity VC Standard

We have qualified for The Diversity VC Standard

The Diversity VC Standard is an assessment and certification process that sets a benchmark for best practice on Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) in VC and sends a signal that a fund follows best D&I practices to the rest of the ecosystem.

For 26 years, Act has always focused on investing in people first and foremost. We are living in a society with an ever-increasing richness of diversity, yet the venture capital industry, in terms of investors and the founders they invest in, does not reflect this. We are committed to acting now to close the gap and focus on accessing an untapped talent pool. Ensuring diversity in Act and encouraging diversity in the investment community.  It is only when diverse perspectives are included at the decision stage, that teams can overcome groupthink and cognitive bias, make better decisions, and ultimately maximize returns.

There is clearly work ahead to make this correction and find an equilibrium, and the VC industry can have a multiplier effect. We build our teams, we decide on the people we want to invest in, we help our teams to grow and hire, and have a responsibility to the wider ecosystem within which we operate.

We have always been wary of tokenism in our industry and had spent some time assessing the Diversity VC Standard. The idea essentially is to create a detailed standard of processes and policies that have been shown to improve diversity in everything that a venture firm does – hire and retain talent, make and manage investments, and work with founders and teams who want to build exceptional and enduring companies.

The Standard is a process of assessment and annual audits, some technological, some human, to really understand how we measure against the industry. It allows firms to understand where they are weak, provoke hard questions, and drive for change.

That’s why after spending time reviewing the standard, we made the commitment to the Diversity VC Standard for D&I and are proud to now have attained the Level One standard. 

Here are some of the measures or initiatives that we were either already running or have initiated in order to meet this standard:

– Introduce a transparent, anonymized, and open hiring process

– Measure the levels of diversity and inclusion within Act and our portfolio of companies

– Develop and document diversity and inclusion best practice including research into the D&I strategies of the best performing tech companies

– Introduce a new D&I assessment at the evaluation stage on D&I policy and hiring practices

– Appoint a Chief Diversity Officer and draft a new Diversity and Inclusion statement

– Reach out and build relationships with community groups, local & regional education institutions to deliver in-person sessions and related content that inspires and educates people from a wide variety of backgrounds and demographics on Venture Capital and the wider technology industry

While we are proud to have reached the Level One standard, we recognise that this is only the beginning and that there is much more work to do before we, as an industry, start to materially change the metrics and culture.

About Diversity VC Standard & Diversio

The Diversity VC Standard is an assessment and certification process that sets a benchmark for best practice on Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) in VC and sends a signal that a fund follows best D&I practices to the rest of the ecosystem.

Diversio is the people intelligence platform that measures, tracks, and improves diversity & inclusion.