Maveron and 9 VC firms join initiative to increase underrepresented investors on term sheets

Alejandro Guerrero, principal at Act One Ventures. (Act One Photo)

A group of venture capital firms today joined “The Diversity Term Sheet Rider for Representation at the Cap Table (Diversity Rider),” a new initiative that aims to increase investor diversity on startup deals.

L.A.-based Act One Ventures is leading the group, which includes Seattle-based firm Maveron. Each firm is committing to include “boilerplate rider language into their standard term sheets” that encourages the addition of underrepresented investors to cap tables.

“This rider will sustain our collaborative efforts as an entire industry to improve access for underrepresented minorities, every single time a deal gets done,” Alejandro Guerrero, principal at Act One, said in a statement. “Through this, we will expand co-investing access, evolve diversity discussions at the cap table and create more diverse deal flow across the industry. As evidenced by research, diverse teams outperform and deliver better returns. Not only is this the right thing to do, but it will have a positive impact on the bottom line.”

Here is the language:

Diversity Rider: In order to advance diversity efforts in the venture capital industry, the Company and the lead investor, [Fund Name], will make commercial best efforts to offer and make every attempt to include as a co-investor in the financing at least one Black [or other underrepresented group including, but not limited to LatinX, women, LGBTQ+] check writer (DCWs), and to allocate a minimum of [X]% or [X] $’s of the total round for such co-investor.

Others participating include Greycroft Partners, First Round Capital, SVB Capital, Harlem Capital Partners, Fifth Wall, Plexo Capital, Precursor Ventures and Equal Ventures.

Firms interested in joining the initiative can sign up here.

A 2018 Deloitte study found that 80% of investment partners at U.S. VC firms were white; 15% were Asian/Pacific Islander; 3% were Black; and 3% were Hispanic. Women accounted for 14% of partners.

There were 54 women who became VC partners in 2019, up from 38 in 2018, according to All Raise. But of those 54, there was only one black woman and one Latinx woman named partner. And 65% of firms don’t have a female partner or GP.

This past June, in response to the protests following the death of George Floyd, SoftBank launched a $100 million Opportunity Fund to invest in minority-owned businesses. Shortly after, Silicon Valley VC firm Andreessen Horowitz announced the Talent x Opportunity Fund, “designed for entrepreneurs who have the talent, drive, and ideas to build great businesses but lack the typical background and resources to do so.”

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Microsoft, PNNL and UW leap into White House’s $1B initiative for AI and quantum research

Krysta Svore, who leads the Microsoft Quantum – Redmond group at Microsoft Research, explains how quantum computing hardware works at a Seattle science meeting in February. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle)

Microsoft, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of Washington are playing supporting roles in the White House’s $1 billion effort to advance research into artificial intelligence and quantum information science.

Those three organizations have already been working together through the Northwest Quantum Nexus to develop the infrastructure for quantum computers, which promise to open up new possibilities in fields ranging from chemistry to systems optimization and financial modeling.

The initiatives announced today are likely to accelerate progress toward the development of commercial-scale quantum computers, Chetan Nayak, Microsoft’s general manager for quantum hardware, said in a blog posting.

“Today marks one of the U.S. government’s largest investments in the field,” he said. “It is also a noteworthy moment for Microsoft, which is providing scientific leadership in addition to expertise in workforce development and technology transfer.”

Over the next five years, the U.S. Department of Energy will set aside up to $625 million to support five quantum computing research centers led by teams at the Argonne, Brookhaven, Fermi, Oak Ridge and Lawrence Berkeley national laboratories. Contributions from the private sector and academia will add up to another $300 million.

Microsoft, PNNL and UW are among the partners in the Quantum Science Center, which is headed up by Oak Ridge and aims to address the tough scientific challenges surrounding quantum processing. In contrast to the sharply defined one-or-zero world of classical computing, quantum computers work with quantum bits, or qubits, which can reflect multiple values simultaneously.

Microsoft and PNNL are also part of the public-private consortium known as Q-NEXT, which is led by Argonne National Laboratory. Next Generation Quantum Science and Engineering will focus on building the infrastructure for quantum computing technology. (Boeing is also a Q-NEXT partner.)

Researchers from PNNL and UW are also partnering in the Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage, or C2QA, with Brookhaven National Laboratory taking the leading role. C2QA will focus on taking advantage of quantum phenomena for high-energy and nuclear physics, chemistry, materials science and other fields.

Microsoft is also represented on the external advisory board for the Quantum Science Accelerator, which is led by the Berkeley Lab in partnership with Sandia National Laboratory. The fifth DOE-funded center is the Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center, led by Fermilab.

“Realizing the promise of quantum computing is beyond the capacity of any single institution, public or private,” PNNL Director Steven Ashby said.

“The power of these new quantum sciences centers lies in the partnerships that will be forged among the national laboratories, leading universities and other research institutions,” he said in a news release. “We are proud that PNNL scientists and engineers will participate in three centers, applying their expertise to the quest to build a reliable quantum computer and to use it to solve the most pressing problems in science and energy.”

Just today, researchers from PNNL and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology addressed one of the challenges facing quantum computing.

In a paper published by the journal Nature, they reported that radiation from natural sources in the environment can limit the performance of superconducting qubits. Such radiation can emanate from earthly materials such as concrete, or rain down through the atmosphere in the form of cosmic rays.

“Our study is the first to show clearly that low-level ionizing radiation in the environment degrades the performance of superconducting qubits,” PNNL’s John Orrell, a study co-author and an expert in low-level radiation measurement, said in a news release. “These findings suggest that radiation shielding will be necessary to attain long-sought performance in quantum computers of this design.”

The newly published findings have immediate implications for qubit design and construction. For example, the researchers say the materials used to construct quantum computers should exclude material that emits radiation.

In addition, it may be necessary to shield experimental quantum computers from radiation in the atmosphere. That may make PNNL’s Shallow Underground Laboratory, which reduces surface radiation exposure by 99%, an attractive option for future quantum computer development.

The study could also influence the future course of research into the nature of dark matter, a mysterious constituent of the universe which is thought to be almost six times as plentiful as ordinary matter. One approach to detecting dark matter calls for using superconducting detectors with elements that are similar to qubits.

“Improving our understanding of this process may lead to improved designs for these superconducting sensors and lead to more sensitive dark matter searches,” said Ben Loer, a PNNL research physicist who is working both in dark matter detection and radiation effects on superconducting qubits.

In addition to the five quantum research centers, the $1 billion initiative establishes seven AI research institutes at universities across the country.

Working with other federal agencies, the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture will set aside $140 million over the next five years for these institutes:

NSF AI Institute for Research on Trustworthy AI in Weather, Climate and Coastal Oceanography, led by a team at the University of Oklahoma at Norman.NSF AI Institute for Foundations of Machine Learning, led by a team at the University of Texas at Austin.NSF AI Institute for Student-AI Teaming, led by a team at the University of Colorado at Boulder.NSF AI Institute for Molecular Discovery, Synthetic Strategy and Manufacturing (or the NSF Molecule Maker Lab), led by a team at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.NSF AI Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Fundamental Interactions, led by a team at MIT.USDA-NIFA AI Institute for Next Generation Food Systems, led by a team at the University of California at Davis.USDA-NIFA AI Institute for Future Agricultural Resilience, Management and Sustainability, led by a team at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

“The National AI Institutes being awarded today comprise large, multi-disciplinary and multi-sector collaborations,” Michael Kartsios, the White House’s chief technology officer, said in a news release. “They bring together consortia of dozens of universities and other organizations, ultimately spanning academia, government and industry.”

NSF is planning to create additional AI research institutes in the years ahead. The total value of the awards, including contributions from partner agencies, is expected to amount to more than $300 million by next summer.

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Seattle and Comcast launch $100,000 initiative to improve technology access for job seekers

Seattle City Hall. (Flickr Photo / Daniel X. O’Neil)

The City of Seattle launched a new program this week designed to provide necessary technology to people of color and other marginalized groups who are looking for jobs. The Digital Bridge program, developed in response to the coronavirus crisis, is designed to provide internet access and other essential tools to Seattle residents looking for work through the Seattle Jobs Initiative (SJI).

Comcast is providing $50,000 to purchase 200 refurbished laptops from the computer recycling nonprofit InterConnection to provide to participants in the SJI job training program. The first round of refurbished laptops were donated to 20 participants in the program earlier this month.

Seattle’s Office of Economic Development is providing an additional $50,000 to expand the tools and resources the city offers job seekers through its digital equity programs.

Digital Bridge is a partnership between the City of Seattle, Comcast, Seattle Jobs Initiative, Technology and Social Change Group at the University of Washington Information School, and InterConnection. The initiative is part of Seattle’s Digital Equity Initiative, which provides grants, skills training, and other resources intended to expand access to jobs of the future.

Celebrate the leading innovators, entrepreneurs, and technologists at the 2020 GeekWire Awards, livestreaming on GeekWire.com starting at 4 p.m. on Thursday, July 23. 

Don’t miss one of the region’s most-anticipated and hotly-contested tech events. 

Thanks to presenting sponsor Wave Business for supporting us as we’ve transitioned to a virtual event. 

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