Black British entrepreneurs find new ways to land funding as diversity efforts are scrapped

Former Goldman Sachs executive Ayesha Ofori was confident that investors would be keen to fund her investment platform startup — then came the wall of rejections.

Some of the venture capitalists who gave the cold shoulder to Ofori's female-focused financial investment platform, Propelle, ultimately rejected her, citing her lack of experience. Ofori notes her background at Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and her MBA from London Business School.

 "Fundraising is phenomenally difficult," Ofori told CNBC. "I try not to think about it, because it gets you down... It's like your gender and the color of your skin is the reason why you're not progressing as fast as other people."

Ofori was one of a small number of Black founders in the U.K. who eventually secured funding for their businesses. But Black founders overall received just 0.23% of venture funds in 2018, according to data from Extend Ventures. That share of the market for the minority group has increased little since then.

Britain's tech sector saw record investment levels of over $40 billion in 2021. Of that amount, Black founders saw their proportion of investment by value rise to a high of 1.13%, as diversity and inclusion efforts by firms soared in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement. Investment value represented by the group has since dropped to 0.95% in 2023, per the Extend Ventures data.

Ofori was convinced that she "ticked every box" regarding what VCs were looking for from founders.

"Through the grapevine, speaking to people behind closed doors, I've been told that a few Black women were given the chance. They did raise VC funding. It failed and went badly, and so some of these particular VC firms aren't prepared to take the risk on us anymore," Ofori