For Venture Capital Firms

The Diversity Rider 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, and LGBTQ+. Firms adopting the rider language pledge to bring folks from these communities into deals as co-investors, thereby instantly increasing diversity at the core of the deal-making process.

The rider language

is as follows:

"In order to advance diversity efforts in the venture capital industry, the Company and the lead investor, [Fund Name], will make commercial best efforts to offer and make every attempt to include as a co-investor in the financing at least one Black [or other underrepresented group including, but not limited to Latinx, women, LGBTQ+] check writers, and to allocate a minimum of [X]% or [X] $'s of the total round for such co-investor."

Launched in August 2020 and led by Alejandro Guerrero of Act One Ventures, we encourage all venture firms and diverse check writers to join the movement. By pledging your support, you are committing to using the rider language in every term sheet. If every firm commits to making this significant change in their deal-making process, the VC playing field will be more inclusive. This will also give underrepresented check writers exposure to networks they previously did not have access to, and it will benefit firms by bringing diverse thinking to the companies in which they are investing.

Learn More

The rider language

is as follows:

Learn More

How and why the rider was created ?

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