The Diversity Rider is |

… but one day, the Diversity Rider will not be needed.

That’s the day when society no longer categorizes its citizens based on color, nationality, class, creed, gender, and every other way we marginalize each other.

Until then, we’re not going to stop.

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The Diversity Term Sheet Rider

The Diversity Term Sheet Rider for Representation at the Cap Table is a call to action focused on increasing opportunities and access to wealth in venture capital and startups for underrepresented communities such as Black, LatinX, female, LGBTQ+, disabled, and others.

Firms adopting the rider language pledge to bring people from these communities into deals as co-investors, thereby instantly increasing diversity at the core of the deal-making process. Use the below links to sign up as a firm, an individual, or both.

Venture Firms

Changing the cap table starts with adopting the Diversity Rider and embedding it into every term sheet. Use this form to tell us you're committed.

Sign Up
Check Writers

Use this form to tell us you are an underrepresented, emerging check writer who is open to being in our database for various levels for co-investment opportunities.

Sign Up

How Act One Ventures created the Diversity Rider

August
2020

In August 2020, Act One Ventures launched the Diversity Term Sheet Rider for Representation at the Cap Table, or simply the Diversity Rider. We were joined by 9 other venture capital firms who committed to using the rider in every deal and 5 industry partners who pledged to amplify the rider among clients and networks.

The Diversity Term
Sheet Rider
9
Venture Capital
Firms
5
Industry
Partners
Now
2021

Today, more than 85 venture firms have publicly signed up to use the Diversity Rider and many more are doing so privately. The combined Assets Under Management (AUM) of these firms exceeds $14 billion, and the rider has been inserted into 100s of deals.

+85
VC firms
$14B+
AUM
100s
Deals
Origin Story

Freakishly Unbalanced: Facts are facts, and they’re grim when it comes to diversity in venture capital and startups and where the money goes

In 2020 …

Venture capital touched all of our lives in some way …

$164 billion
was invested by venture capitalists
$74.5 billion
was raised by venture capital firms
11,651 deals
were made across all 50 states plus D.C. and Puerto Rico
54% of deals
were inked in only 3 states — California, New York, and Massachusetts
11,651 deals
were made across all 50 states plus D.C. and Puerto Rico
54% of deals
were inked in only 3 states — California, New York, and Massachusetts
Why?
Because that’s where all the money is located ...
$548 billion

of the $548 billion worth of assets under management by all venture capital firms in all 50 states plus D.C.

$465 billion

is located in California, New York, and Massachusetts

Why?
Because that’s where all the money is located ...
$548 billion
all 50 states plus D.C.
$465 billion
California, New York, and Massachusetts
However, no matter where they were located …
2.6%
Just 2.6% of that money was invested in Black- and Latinx-founded startups
4%
Just 4% went to startups founded by women
9%
While startups with both a male and female founder received 9% of funding
Even more
stark is the fact that between 2007 and 2018 ...
164%
Black-women-owned businesses
increased by 164%
172%
Latinx-women-owned businesses
grew by 172%
Do you think venture capitalists were paying attention to this?
During that same period, venture-backed businesses raised
$425
billion
0.32%
a pitiful 0.32% went toward Latinx-women-owned businesses
0.0006%
a microscopic 0.0006% was invested into those founded by Black women
Sadly

Venture capital remains most lucrative for white men who live on either coast of the U.S.

85%
of all venture capital funding
White-male-
owned businesses,
2007 - 2018
And that’s why the Diversity Rider is more important than ever
Sources: VC Human Capital Survey, Crunchbase, NVCA, Rustin Finkler's Georgetown Masters Thesis (2019)
How did venture capital become so exclusive?

In its most basic form, venture capital’s function is totally unbiased: provide capital to businesses that have the potential to return capital quickly and at a high rate. However, that’s not how it works in real life.

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