The 98% Blind Spot.
If you told a public equities trader that they were legally required to ignore 50% of the S&P 500, they would quit. They would call it a rigged market.
Yet, in UK venture capital, 98% of funding goes to all-male teams. The industry is voluntarily blinding itself to half the talent pool.
The Cost of Bias
This is not a social issue. It is a P&L issue. Data from Boston Consulting Group shows that women-founded startups generate 78 cents of revenue per dollar invested, compared to 31 cents for male-founded companies. They are more capital-efficient, they reach profitability faster, and they default less often.
The market is currently pricing these assets as “distressed” or “niche.” They are neither. They are simply overlooked.
The Arosa Approach
We do not view the funding gap as a tragedy to be mourned. We view it as a spread to be captured.
By building the infrastructure to systematically identify and back women-led funds, we are accessing a proprietary deal flow that the “pattern-matching” funds are structurally unable to see.
While our competitors are fighting for allocation in the same ten deals, we are banking the returns from the other half of the economy.
The moral case for diversity is clear. But the business case is louder.
