Gillian Musig Not angry about the gender gap in venture capital. She just finished waiting for the change.
“I don’t have more patience to be polite and let the status quo continue,” said Muessig, a tech industry veteran who helped found the SEO company Moz in 2004.
Muessig’s latest project is Sibila Master Fund, Started three years ago.It just closed a $1 million fund Made the first investment In female-led entrepreneurship artificial intelligence, A corporate sales start-up in Silicon Valley, run by a woman of color, Padma Subramanian.
The fund is named after Sybilla Masters. Sybilla Masters was an early inventor in the American colonies. The corn mill she invented was patented-but with her husband In the name. Muessig’s goal is to close the gender gap in venture capital.
Some progress has been made in the past decade, with more and more women-led startups receiving funding and more women in venture capital positions. American venture capital firms with female founders or co-founders raised a record US$25.1 billion in the first half of 2021. PitchBook reportBut it’s still a small part Of the 150 billion US dollars raised.
PitchBook also pointed out the transaction value gap between an all-female team and a startup with male and female founders Continue to expand.
Female founders performed well this year—but only if they have male co-founders.
Funding for single female founders or female-only co-founders remains stagnant. https://t.co/tUBMy3ONYq pic.twitter.com/XWteATPP6c
— Halle Tecco MBA, MPH (@halletecco) August 26, 2021
Muessig believes that having more female-led venture capital firms will lead to more investment in female-led startups. Muessig said that venture capitalists will naturally fund projects that “they operate in a younger form.”
“Money must come from different people and flow through different channels,” she said.
A report from Aksios It was discovered earlier this year that women accounted for 14.2% of the leaders of venture capital firms. This is higher than last year’s 12.4% and 2016’s 5.7%.
Even with these gains, 61% of venture capital firms did not have a woman in a key decision-making role, which was the same as the previous year.
Muessig said that although Sybilla and other new female-led funds continue to emerge, and more and more women are making decisions in investment companies, the world’s most well-funded venture capital organizations are still dominated by men.
“These funds are trillions of dollars in assets under management (AUM),” she said. “It will take decades rather than decades for newly established female-led funds to solve problems. Some have failed, others are growing, and even such a fund has reached the $1 trillion asset management scale.”
Muessig added: “It was Hans Rosling who said, “It’s absolutely terrible. It’s never been better. Both of these things are true.
Sybilla Masters Fund will invest in 16 companies as part of its first fund and plans to raise $15 million for its second fund. Ultimately, Muessig wants to raise $100 million in funding, while also supporting 100 women in raising their own funds.
“We will prove this model,” she said.
Muessig manages the fund together with her co-managing directors, Annie Kennedy, Marketing veteran. The two initially co-founded Outlines Venture Group; Outlines is now a general partner of Sybilla Masters Fund, which has four venture partners.
Muessig co-founded Moz with her son Rand Fishkin. It was acquired by iContact earlier this year.