One in five members of Finnish VC & PE funds’ investment teams a woman
According to a recent study by Tesi, gender diversity in the investment teams of Finnish venture capital and private equity (VC & PE) funds has increased over the past five years. Currently, one in five team members is a woman. People still enter the field through fairly narrow study paths: the majority of those working in the investment teams of VC & PE investors have commercial or technical study backgrounds.
Roughly every fifth person in the investment teams of Finnish VC & PE funds is a woman. This is a marked improvement, as the proportion has almost doubled over a five-year period. The fastest improvement was in venture capital funds investing in startups, where the study backgrounds of team members are, on average, the most diverse.
The proportion of women has increased most at the manager level, and currently stands at almost 40 per cent. This represents an increase of ten per centage points over five years. The proportion of women at the partner level is 15 per cent.
“Although the proportion of women among partners is still low, the increase in managerial diversity is a good sign, as typically promotion to partner in VC & PE funds is from within the company as staff accumulate years of experience,” comments Tesi’s investment manager Samuel Wendelin.
Now, for the first time, a review of how the profits of Finnish VC & PE funds are distributed within fund teams was published alongside the diversity survey. The review reveals that there are no major differences between genders in the distribution of carried interest in Finnish VC & PE funds, when the different roles in investment teams are taken into account.
“However, there are significantly fewer women at the managerial level, so there are clearly fewer women than men receiving the carry,” points out Maria Hyartt, Senior Analyst at Tesi and compiler of the review.
Read the whole survey here (in English)
For more information:
Maria Hyartt, Senior Analyst
maria.hyartt@tesi.fi
Communications contact:
Saara Vettenranta, Communications Manager
saara.vettenranta@tesi.fi