Private capital has barriers to entry. Being a woman should not be one of them

Regardless of how you approach it, private capital is a tough industry to crack.
Whether you are a founder seeking private equity or venture capital funding for your business – or looking to join one of the many private capital firms supporting growing companies all over the UK – you will come up against some challenges.
It’s highly competitive. The hours can, truthfully, be long and tiring. You might not ‘click’ with the people you’re pitching to, or the hiring managers sat on the other side of the table. The days, weeks, months you spent researching might all be for nothing if you’re blindsided by a question you didn’t anticipate.
But these are challenges that can be mitigated; ‘barriers to entry’ that can be overcome.
Be resilient. Think about the questions you’ll be asked, then the follow-on questions and then the questions after those and prepare for them. Look to build a network within the space you’re interested in and reach out to it for advice. Nail down what you bring to the team you want to work with. Absolutely refine your personal pitch and the value that you can add.
Being a woman, however, should not be part of the challenge of breaking into private capital. Yet, female representation across the industry, and the number of female founders supported by it, is still relatively low.
For example, the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association’s (BVCA) 2021 survey on diversity and inclusion – produced alongside Level 20 – found that women account for only 38% of the industry and 10% of senior investment rolesi. Similarly, the British Business Bank’s Annual Small Business Equity Tracker reported that around 2% and 5% of total VC investment was received by all-female teams in 2019 and 2020, out of record high levels of £8.5 billion and £8.8 billion, respectivelyii.
Despite these findings being stark, progress is being made.
There are many fantastic initiatives that connect female founders to VCs, help them perfect their pitches and access the funding they need to scale their companies – Astia, Fund Her North and Angel Academe are just three examples of many. VCs and other institutional investors are being encouraged to sign up to the Investing in Women Code which commits all financial institutions to the principles of gender equality and transparent reporting of gender funding data. This is one of the recommendations from the Rose Review into female entrepreneurship and best practice guidance for VCs and other investors has been published in recent years.
The BVCA also runs regular events dedicated to increasing the representation women in the industry, offering opportunities for networking, access to the UK's top private capital practitioners and advisers, and – importantly - a platform for candid discussion about improving gender diversity in the industry. We will run our diversity survey again this year as well and will continue to support our members, and the drive across the industry, to deliver more transparency on this subject.
These are just some of many things being done to help those looking to break into this industry and support women to succeed at all ends of the private capital spectrum. It’s important that this momentum continues, something I actively campaign for in my roles.
The private equity and venture capital industry can be a roller-coaster ride – as challenging as it is rewarding. It may be difficult to break into for many reasons, but being a woman should not be one of them.
Kerry Baldwin, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of IQ Capital and Chair of the BVCA.
i BVCA Diversity & Inclusion Survey 2021
ii The Alison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship