Erika’s Founder Story and Research

My background is incredibly different from Johannes’s; some might say it’s the polar opposite. I am a Black female, born and raised in Streatham Vale, South London. I was educated in comprehensive schools and, despite being advanced a year in secondary school for being gifted and talented, I stopped education at A-Levels due to circumstances. I went to university for the first time in 2017 to study for an EMBA at the University of Surrey. Having graduated within the top percentile of my class, I wrote my PhD proposal for the development and deployment of algorithms that would enable an analysis of the allocation of capital by the UK’s venture capital ecosystem as pertaining to the perceived gender, ethnicity, and educational background of venture-backed founders. I was offered places at several leading universities and eventually decided to read at the LSE, where I was awarded a fully funded studentship and have been privileged to work with Professor Grace Lordan in the Inclusion Initiative, and am supported by leading figures who are committed to creating tangible change in the venture capital and private equity industries.

Over the last decade, I have been able to co-create two for-profit enterprises as well as two non-profit organizations—one of those is Extend Ventures, where I am co-founder and head of research, alongside the incredible co-founders Tom Adeyoola, Patricia Hamzahee, and Kekeli Anthony. Our research outputs, including the Diversity Beyond Gender report, have succeeded in illuminating many of the stark disparities in access to funding, in ways that have not previously been possible. As a result, we have been able to partner with Atomico, Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center, JP Morgan, and Innovate UK to support the global analysis of capital allocation to diverse founders. This research has been credited with being a catalyst for many new funds receiving funding that is specifically for diverse entrepreneurs.

Prior to Diversity Beyond Gender being released, I had not been able to raise capital for my entrepreneurial endeavors. Even in 2019 and early 2020, when my co-founders at Extend Ventures included an exited entrepreneur, an investment stalwart, and a Bain consultant with degrees from Oxford, Cambridge, and Columbia, while I was at the LSE, as an all-Black team, we needed to bootstrap the first research piece to “de-risk” our proposition. Going back further to 2015 and 2016 when I sought Series A investment for my first company, Karisma Kidz, it was similarly impossible to raise money.

Since the Diversity Beyond Gender report, things have improved. We tracked one UK Black female who had raised more than £1M in capital for her venture between 2009 and 2019. That number has risen to more than 16 Black women in the two years since the report was published, however, a significant proportion of the 16 have not been able to raise this money from venture capital funds, having instead to rely upon angel investors who are keen to expedite change.

When Johannes approached me with the opportunity to co-author this volume, I saw an incredible opportunity. This is an issue that goes far beyond just me or the other Black women who are struggling to raise money for industry-altering and immensely profitable ideas. This volume allows us to share the stories of people who bring more diverse experiences to the venture capital and tech industry, as well as spotlight those who promote the fair and equitable allocation of the capital and connections that entrepreneurs need to thrive.