Tesi’s Diversity Review 2020: Persistently developing the diversity in the VC&PE market
As part of Tesi’s 2020 corporate responsibility objectives, we prepared a Diversity Review of Finland’s venture capital and private equity industry and, internally, of Tesi. The review examined Tesi’s in-house organisation, portfolio funds’ investment teams, and portfolio companies’ boards of directors. Diversity is measured with regard to gender, age and nationality as other data is limited in availability. Tesi compiled a corresponding Diversity Review in 2019, and the changes occurred are highlighted in this 2020 review.
The results show that the Finnish VC&PE industry is still heavily male-dominated. The proportion of women both in portfolio funds’ investment teams and in portfolio companies’ boards is significantly lower than that of men. Additionally, in funds, women are more likely to work in the role of an analyst or a manager than of a partner. In boards, women are more likely to be board members than chairpersons. However, some positive changes have occurred, too. For instance, in 2019, some 50% of Finnish portfolio funds had no women in their investment teams, but that figure had fallen to 44% in 2020.
The gender distribution of Tesi’s investment teams corresponds to the industry average, in that only about one fifth of the employees are women. Tesi’s Board of Directors, exceptionally, has a majority of women, a significant contrast to the industry average.
Age groups are more evenly represented, although the age structure of Tesi’s international portfolio funds in particular is slightly skewed towards younger age groups. Company boards, again, are comprised mainly of older age groups. The age structure of Tesi’s investment teams and Board of Directors corresponds to the industry average.
The venture capital segment has the highest proportion of international employees and board members compared to growth and buyout segments. All Tesi’s employees and board members are Finnish, similarly to 2019.
“Tesi’s 2020 Diversity Review shows that there is still much to be done. We are determined to keep developing the diversity in the VC & PE market and in our own operations also in the future,” concludes Heli Kerminen, Director, Sustainable Investments at Tesi.
Read more about the diversity of Finland’s venture capital and private equity market and of Tesi from our Diversity Review 2020.
Tesi (Finnish Industry Investment Ltd) is a state-owned investment company that wants to raise Finland to the front ranks of transformative economic growth by investing in funds and directly in companies. We invest profitably and responsibly, hand-in-hand with co-investors, to create the world’s new success stories. Our investments under management total 1.9 billion euros.– www.tesi.fi | @TesiFII
