Emtrain & TFE partner to close funding gap for diverse founders

Emtrain and Tech Funding Equity Project (TFE) have joined forces to close the funding gap for under-represented and diverse founders.

This partnership will provide diversity, equity, and inclusion tools for both funding organisations, as well as the companies they fund. Emtrain, which provides workplace culture analytics and compliance training for growth-stage tech companies announced the new partnership with the Tech Funding Equity Project (TFE), an initiative developed at the Aspen Institute Tech Policy Hub; to close the funding gap experienced by underrepresented and overlooked founders. 

“There is a tremendous need for diversity and inclusion in the tech funding space,” stated TFE chief Mariah Lichtenstern, who also serves as Emerging Manager and Founding Partner of DiverseCity Ventures. “By some estimates, more than 95% of the gatekeepers to capital investments are White or Asian, and 83% are male. And 95% of venture-backed startup founders are White or Asian.”

PROMOTING DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION

However, the cost of overlooking diversity in the startup world is crippling, according to Lichtenstern. “In startups, the Center for Global Policy Solutions has found that over nine million jobs and $300 billion is lost in annual income due to discriminatory finance practices. We can’t afford to continue the cycle of economic oppression; it’s not sustainable.”

There is a lot of work to be done “and I believe technology can play a part”, she adds. The partnership between Emtrain and TFE is designed to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion within funding organisations that influence their portfolio companies, and introduces DE&I tools to start-ups that can leverage them as they scale. It begins with an assessment on the TFE site that provides an initial scorecard as a benchmark that can be measured internally, and against the performance of peers externally. From there, participants can tap into Emtrain’s advanced tools.  

ADDRESSING START-UP PROBLEMS

While Emtrain generally works with high growth companies of over 200 employees, TFE addresses problems faced by pre-seed start-ups and those who fund them. “Studies show that culture is set by the time an organisation reaches 15 employees. After that, an established culture must be fixed – a much harder undertaking,” says Janine Yancey, Founder & CEO of Emtrain; who previously served as a Silicon Valley labour attorney working with tech giants including Google and Intuit prior to founding Emtrain. 

“Creating a cohesive, diverse culture early on means more opportunities for overlooked operators to build wealth and invest back in similarly overlooked founders,” adds Yancey. For more information about the Tech Funding Equity Opportunity Pledge, click here.

The funding gap is a huge issue for start-ups led by Black and Latin founders in the US. In fact, only 40 Black founders raised venture capital (VC) funding in the fourth quarter of 2020, reveals a new study by diversity recruiting platform Hallo. Click here to read more.