January 20, 2022

Black People Makeup 6% Of The Chicago VC Workforce, Outpacing The National Average Of 4%

According to the annual VC Diversity Survey from Chicago:Blend, 2021 did see growth in both minorities and women working in venture capital, but the city is still behind national averages.

The Chicago tech scene is one of the biggest contributors to Chicago’s economy and has helped develop tech startups scale and through the first three quarters of 2021 alone, Chicago tech raised over $5.5 billion, up from $2.8 billion in 2020.

2021 saw the most venture funding since they started tracking such statistics 15 years ago.

And while they can be applauded for their progress – there is still work to be done.

The only ‘group’ that the region is doing well in is the Black community but even then the numbers are still very low. Black professionals increased over 12% and now makeup 6% of the local VC workforce, outpacing the national average of 4%.

Although Latino professionals saw the biggest spike from 2020 to 2021, with an 80% increase in the VC workforce. They only represent 4.3% of Chicago’s total VC employees, lower than the national average of 7%.

Asian professionals were up 10% year over year but now represent just over 10% of the workforce, much lower than the national rate of 18%.

Women in venture capital saw a slight increase in 2021, but the 34% figure in Chicago is well behind the national rate of 45%.

“Although we are pleased that the share of underrepresented professionals working in Chicago’s venture industry increased last year, we know that much more needs to be done to bring greater equity to this sector,” says Joey Mak, executive director of Chicago:Blend.

“Especially given that Chicago is demographically more diverse than the nation as a whole.”

What is now being done about it?

Funds are being set up in Chicago to address the issue of raising money for founders of color.

“We launched Fifth Star Funds specifically to address the lack of capital being invested in early-stage Black tech founders in Chicago,” Samir Mirza, co-founder of the VC fund, told Axios.

“We seek to bridge the funding gap by using a robust, objective process of evaluating founders so we can remove the racial biases that have existed in the venture landscape.”

Abbianca Makoni

Abbianca Makoni is a content executive and writer at POCIT! She has years of experience reporting on critical issues affecting diverse communities around the globe.

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