Exclusive: The impact VCs winning on gender equality – and those still lagging

European venture capital firms investing in impact-focused sectors such as climate tech, deep tech, and social ventures have far more female founding partners and general partners than the broader industry, a recent Impact Loop study has found.

Impact Loop’s study is based on manually sorted employee data from over 200 European impact-focused firms, providing a granular view of who is leading on gender equality – and who still has work to do.

The data reveals a mixed bag. Some firms, such as Rubio Impact Ventures, 4Impact Capital, and Blume Equity, boast all-female founding teams, while others such as 2150, Redstone, and Contrarian Ventures have yet to include women at the partner level at all.

To give readers a clear picture, we’re making the dataset available in the table below. It lists each firm, sorted by whether they were founded by women or have at least one female partner.

The table is designed to help investors, founders, and industry observers understand which firms are setting the standard and which lag behind.

By opening up this data, Impact Loop hopes to shine a light on progress and gaps in gender diversity within the impact VC ecosystem. The patterns revealed here may also offer lessons for the wider venture capital industry, which continues to grapple with a predominantly male leadership.

Pictured above:

Veronique Hördemann, Beau-Anne Chilla, Elina Berrebi, Anne-Louise Thon-Jensen, Amy Novogratz, Anja Rath, Dr. Manon Sarah Littek, Claire Smith, Vera Baker, Dr. Lauren Lentz, Devika Thapar, Susanne Fromm, Nora Bavey, Silke Horáková, Willemijn Verloop, Carina Namih, Isabella Fandrych, Maria Wasastjerna, Beatriz González, Paula Groves, Inka Mero, Monika Inde Zsak, Jacqueline van den Ende, Dr. Carolin Gabor, Fanny Picard, Check Warner, Pauline Wink, Jacob Bro, Christophe Maire, Michael Brehm, Rokas Peciulaitis, Nic Gorini