A commitment to investing in women

In 2021, women only teams in Australia got 4% of venture funding. This rises to 17% if you include mixed teams. And we're flatlining as an industry, not improving.

Last financial year 48% of the first calls I took had at least one woman co-founder. Satisfyingly, over 60% of the deals we signed had at least one woman co-founder.

What's worked?

• Giving second chances—sharing the rules of VC early on and giving women the opportunity to come back with a rebuttal or new thinking.
• Making it known that we really care—mentoring at SheLovesTech, sponsoring Scale's EducatED program.
• Close relationships with other women in the industry—sharing deal flow with other women investors.

So it's solved then?

At Paloma we only do around five deals a year and so it doesn't take much for those stats to evaporate. Gender equity in VC will not be solved for a long time. To make a dent it must always be front of mind.