previous Goldman Sachs Executive Ayesha Ofori believed investors would be keen to fund her investment platform startup, only to be rejected.

Some venture capitalists cool on Ofori Women-centric financial investment platform PropelleShe was ultimately rejected due to her lack of experience. Ofori cited her background at Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and her MBA from London Business School.

“Fundraising is very difficult,” Ofori told CNBC. “I try not to think about it because it can bring you down…like your gender and your skin color are the reasons why you’re not progressing as fast as other people.”

Ofori is one of the few black founders in the UK to eventually secure funding for his business. But according to data, black founders received only 0.23% of venture funds overall in 2018 Expand venture capital. Since then, minority groups have barely increased their market share.

In 2021, investment levels in the UK technology industry reached a record high, exceeding $40 billion. Among them, the proportion of investment by black founders rose to a high of 1.13%, as the company’s diversity and inclusion efforts increased significantly in 2021. black lives matter movement. According to data from Extend Ventures, the value of investments represented by the group has fallen to 0.95% by 2023.

Ofori is convinced that she “satisfies what VCs want in a founder.”

“Through the grapevine, I talked to people personally, and I was told that some black women got opportunities. They did raise VC money. It failed, and it went poorly, so some of these specific VC firms Not ready to take our risk anymore,” Ofori explained.

Just 13 black women raised venture capital between 2019 and 2023, compared with more than 3,700 white men, according to Extend Ventures.

Like other black founders in the UK, Ofori hopes to reverse the decline in funding by targeting high-profile investors and taking a more community-focused approach, including support from family and friends.

They work with some of the biggest names in the industry, such as Facebook owners YuanGoogle, PwC and JPMorgan Chase.

Google also supports Propelle’s Ofori and Husmus’ Wernér, providing funding through Google Startups Black Founders Fund. Ofori, who received an initial investment of $100,000, said entering Google for Startups was the “catalyst” that started the money flowing in.

Even as people who had previously rejected her became interested, Ofori decided to focus on leveraging her community and network to move forward.

She also reached out to some of her former colleagues at Goldman Sachs and attracted high-profile investors, including female entrepreneurs, to join. One of Propelle’s investors is former Goldman Sachs partner Stefan Bollinger, now CEO of Swiss bank Julius Baer.

Werner calls this support a “friends and family” round — an early form of fundraising in which founders ask friends and family to invest in their business. She said her first check came from a university friend who gave her £10,000, which encouraged her to reach out to other acquaintances.

“These people know you. You fight alongside them. You stay up late in the library with them. They know you, trust you, and pay you out of their pockets to tell the truth, and there’s nothing more humbling than that. ,” she told CNBC.

Diversity and inclusion programs surge in 2020 when murders happen george floyd Colorintech’s McKenzie and Ainsley say that failure has hurt the tech industry, leading to protests and racial unrest and not inspiring long-term investment in black communities.

McKenzie said a more diverse workforce can lead to “better products, better teams, and ultimately more revenue,” adding that more inclusive employers enable companies to get “the most Good talents”.

“If we think about the whole concept of developing the UK and making ourselves a more productive country, we can’t do that by widening the productivity gap between specific social groups,” Ainslie said. He stressed that, although These social groups may be minorities, they are not “insignificant”.

Four years after the Black Lives Matter moment, perceptions of diversity efforts have changed. Several companies include McDonald’s, Google, Ford, Lowe’s and Walmart have Scale back U.S. diversity efforts For various reasons ranging from cost cutting to political pressure. Donald Trump’s incoming White House administration has raised concerns about the future of DEI, given the president-elect’s proposed elimination of federally funded diversity programs.

In the UK, the Labor Party pledged before the election to introduce racial equality act The contrast with the outlook at home in the United States is stark. While the backsliding in UK corporate DEI initiatives may be less widespread, the value of investments represented by black founders in the country has yet to exceed 1% in 2021 and 2022, according to Extend Ventures.

Ansley and McKenzie said DEI as a term has become “politicized” and “weaponized” as a way to silence the efforts of groups like Colorintech.

“For better or worse, DEI will certainly be a focus of the next administration. We heard a lot of anti-DEI rhetoric in the lead-up to the election and the actions we intend to take once in office, but ultimately business leaders need to make a choice and look at their , whether their employees and shareholders see the value of diversity, inclusion and equity, or whether alternatives are more conducive to value creation and attracting the best talent,” McKenzie said.