Venture capital, like the rest of the alternative investments industry, has made efforts towards improving diversity and inclusion (D&I) in recent years, but progress is still too slow. When it comes to gender, for example, recent figures from data provider Preqin show that the proportion of alternative assets employees who are female rose very modestly from 18.8% in 2018 to 19.7% in 2019.

This week, London-based consultancy Equality Group launched its first inclusion index, which ranks the top 20 PE and VC firms according to their diversity and inclusion performance. Private Equity News — sister paper to Financial News — which had exclusive access to the list, spoke to some of the 400 global firms analysed to discuss their strategies, case studies, and why the industry has taken so long to take action.