Tech women honor VC firms that back women entrepreneurs

The Women’s Technology Cluster, or WTC, will acknowledge venture capitalists that have backed women entrepreneurs in a ceremony Wednesday.

VCs at New Enterprise Associates, Mobius Venture Capital, Vanguard Ventures, and Versant Ventures will receive awards.

The WTC picked its honorees for having invested in the largest number of women-led companies, for the largest monetary investment in woman-led companies, and the greatest total number of female executives in their 2003 portfolio companies.

“We don’t fund women out of some sort of ‘diversity cause,’” said Mobius Venture Capital managing partner and WTC award winner Heidi Roizen. “We funded these women because they are great entrepreneurs and it made smart business sense to do so.”

Vanguard Ventures, a WTC award winner, funded 34 companies in its sixth and seventh funds. Of those 34, six of them have had female CEOs, including Cooking.com, Vocera Communications, Percardia, TissueLink, and Artemis Medical, which recently sold to Johnson & Johnson.

"What’s ironic, to me, is that is considered to be a lot," said Vanguard partner Dan Eilers. "Six out of 34 is a significantly lower representation than we have in society and in business. We’ve still got a ways to go before we reach equality."

From Red Herring.