March - Diversity in business
As March 8th is International Women’s Day, this month’s sustainability calendar is the perfect opportunity to reflect on how diversity makes business sense for entities in the long term.
Here at Mazars Denmark we are no stranger to diversity; with a female managing partner, Pia Lund Lillebæk and 67% of the management team being women, we are aware this is out of the ordinary and something to be proud of.
When considering the relationship between diversity and sustainability, we can think of no better example than one of our inspirational partners; Unconventional Ventures.
As an early-stage investment firm, Unconventional Ventures invests in:
- Nordic scaleable tech startups at the pre-seed/seed stage
- Founded by those underrepresented in the marketplace; women, LGBTQ, people of colour and immigrants
- Targeting global market opportunities
Thea Messel established the venture capital fund, and in doing so, is not only championing the underrepresented in business but is also defying the gender investment gap, with 85% of investments made by women.
A report by Unconventional Ventures and Dealroom assessing ‘Nordic Startup funding Through the Lens of Gender Diversity', found that “of the 2bn euro of venture capital invested in 2018 in the Nordics, 88% went to all-male founder teams, 11% to mixed gender teams and 1% to all-female founder teams.”
However all is not lost and the report goes on to observe: “the key ingredient in creating and building ground-breaking innovations is the people. Research has again and again proven that diversity, particularly gender diversity, is directly linked to innovation as well as financial performance. This goes for startups as well as big corporates.”
This highlights the opportunity and room in the market for innovation and growth, when investing in a more diverse mix of startup founders. The Unconventional Ventures portfolio is undeniably living up to this brief, boasting a variety of exciting businesses that are not only relevant today but are sustainable.
Mazars is very proud to support Thea and Unconventional Ventures in their continuing effort to support diversity in business.
For more information please go to their website: https://www.unconventional.vc/
You can also read the full report, referred to above at: https://www.unconventional.vc/Report/
March story