多样性赤字

thePotentialofEthnicallyDiverseFounders Authors Jordan SullivanHead of Economic PolicyStartup Coalition Vinous AliDeputy Executive DirectorStartup Coalition AboutStartup Coalition Startup Coalition, formerly Coadec, is the policy voice of UK tech startups and scaleups. Since 2010, wehave worked to engage on behalf of tech startups in public policy debates in the UK across a range ofcritical priority issues including access to finance, immigration and skills, and technology regulation. We fight for a policy environment that enables early-stage British tech companies to grow, scale andcompete globally. We have over 4,000 startups and investors in our network and have been instrumentalin building proactive coalitions of businesses and investors on issues integral to the health of the UK’sstartup ecosystem. We represent the startup community on the Government’s Digital Economy Council,and the UK on the board of the international organisation Allied for Startups. Acknowledgements We are thankful to the many organisations that, for many years, have gathered data and evidence on thebarriers in funding for different groups of ethnically diverse founders. We have relied heavily on thisimportant work. Our report aims to build on this foundational data on different ethnic groups, to come upwitha set of recommendations that would benefit the greatest number of founders from thesecommunities. We are also grateful for the great work of our former Talent Policy Lead, Bella Rhodes,who conducted the primary research for this report. ExecutiveSummary Ethnicallydiverse founders are among the UK’s most entrepreneurial groups,yet they remainpersistently underrepresented in venture capital portfolios.This is not simply a question of fairness. Itrepresents a material growth deficit for the UK economy. The evidence is clear.Ethnically diverse individuals are around1.6 - 1.8times more likely to engagein early-stage entrepreneurshipthan their white counterparts. Despite this, between 2013 and 2023ethnically diverse founders received funding injust 11% of venture capital roundsand captured onlyaround9% of total investment value, despite accounting for18% of the UK populationand roughly40% of London’s population, where most venture activity takes place.The funding gap widens ascompanies scale, with ethnically diverse-led businesses receivingonly 10% of capital at Series A, Band C stages. Disaggregated data reveals even sharper disparities. Black founders received only 1.6% of rounds and0.9% of total investment value over the past decade, with Black women securing just 0.14% of total VCinvestment. These outcomes are not explained by a lack of entrepreneurial activity, quality or ambition.Instead, they reflect structural features of how capital is allocated and who is perceived as“investable”. This report synthesises quantitative evidence from leading industry and public-sector datasets alongsidequalitative insights from ethnically diverse founders and investors. Together, they point to three mutuallyreinforcing barriers: 1)Network exclusion:warm introductions and informal sponsorship play a decisive role in venturefunding, yet ethnically diverse founders are systematically locked out of these pathways.2)Bias and pattern-matching:investor heuristics around“founder-market fit”and riskdisproportionately disadvantage founders who do not conform to prevailing norms.3)Information asymmetries:founders without inherited access to venture knowledge face gaps infundraisingmechanics,deal structuring and investor expectations,which compound earlydisadvantages. Unlocking the potential of ethnically diverse founders requires structural change rather than surface-levelinitiatives.This report sets out three practical recommendations: 1)Mandating consistent diversity reporting from large venture capital funds to improvetransparency and accountability;2)Strategically backing fund managers and ecosystem groups embedded in diasporanetworks to harness global market links; and3)Funding trusted delivery partners to deploy micro-grants and pre-seed support thatconvert entrepreneurial ambition into investable businesses. Taken together, these reforms would not only improve opportunities within the startup ecosystem butmaterially strengthen the UK’s growth pipeline. Ethnically diverse founders do not lack ambition or capability.They lack fair access to capital, networks and risk-sharing. Addressing this is both aneconomic necessity and a strategic opportunity for the UK. Introduction Diverse founders over-index on entrepreneurship yet under-index on access to capital. This isnot only a symptom of inequality but also a growth deficit for the UK. Ata time when Britain is searching for new engines of productivity,innovation and globalcompetitiveness – failing to back ethnically diverse founders means overlooking some of the country’smost entrepreneurial communities. This report examines the systemic barriers that founders from ethnically div