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The Story: Chicago:Blend, a nonprofit focused on promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in Chicago’s venture capital and startup community, just released a five-year startup diversity report surveying how top American cities invest in and support diverse founders.

Since its founding in 2018, the nonprofit has published an annual report of data collection on Chicago and other major venture markets, which include New York, San Francisco, Austin, Boston, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Seattle, Miami, and Denver. The Chicago:Blend team are “big believers that you can’t improve what you don’t measure.”

Here are key findings from the Startup Diversity Report:

The share of venture-backed companies in Chicago founded by a diverse founder over the last five years:

• 36.5% had at least one woman founder—the highest percentage of any city included in the report.

• 24.4% had at least one founder of color—the second highest percentage of any city.

• 10.4% had at least one Black or African American founder—the second highest percentage of any city after only Atlanta.

• 8% had at least one Latine founder—the second highest percentage of any city after only Miami.

• 5.9% had at least one AAPI founder—the second highest percentage of any city after only San Francisco.

The share of VC funding raised by diverse founders in Chicago over the last five years:

• 44% went to companies founded by people of color – the second highest percentage of any city in this report.

• 14.9% went to companies founded by women in the last five years—the third lowest percentage of any city in this report.

• 27.6% went to companies founded by Latine founders in the last five years—the highest percentage of any city in this report.

• 14.1% went to companies founded by AAPI founders in the last five years—the third highest percentage of any city in this report.

• Just 2.4% went to companies founded by Black founders in the last five years—the fifth highest percentage of any city in this report.

Expert Take: Joey Mak, CEO of Chicago:Blend says, “We found that Chicago has outperformed several other cities in significant and meaningful ways that we should be proud of as a city, and this data proves that Chicago is increasingly becoming a great city for underrepresented founders and VCs to conduct business.”

But Mak isn’t satisfied with these results yet. He says, “That being said, other funding inequities persist, reminding us of the work that lies ahead on our shared journey toward building a more inclusive VC and startup ecosystem.”

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