April 2022, amended September 2023
At Planet A, we believe that great people come in all shapes.
Planet A aspires to work with the best. Our investment or hiring decisions are based on the strengths and performance of individuals and teams. But finding talent requires effort. In order to find the best, we cannot only look where it feels obvious.
As a VC, we try to understand today what tomorrow will look like. Bringing in diverse perspectives is one of the most potent ways to do this. We believe diversity is not just a compliance issue, it’s business-critical. Study after study shows that diversity helps companies perform better.
Diversity for us is not just about gender or ethnicity, it is about the diversity of background and mindset. Building a diverse team, and a team that values the importance of diversity makes us a better investor, employer, and partner for our founders. These values are fundamental to everything we do, including but not limited to our Planet A Network and Advisory Board, recruitment and retention, investment strategy, and our involvement in the wider ecosystem.
We recognize that access to resources and opportunities needed to pursue founding a company is not equitably distributed in society. We acknowledge our own role and responsibility in addressing those inequities. As an early-stage fund, we can contribute to a more diverse and inclusive society and economy through the way we invest as well as build our own company.
We treat employees, experts and advisors, investors, entrepreneurs, and people we interact with fairly and ethically, regardless of age, gender, ability, ethnicity, religion, culture, or sexual orientation. We expect the same from others, including, but not limited to, our investors, other investment firms, and of course, the entrepreneurs and businesses we invest in. Planet A will not tolerate any form of discrimination, harassment, or victimization.
We seek to identify and select a diverse set of people affiliated with our fund and provide a fair and inclusive working environment with equal opportunities for all people we work with. We encourage respectful communication, cooperation, and teamwork. We partner with organizations like Future.VC, Supernovas, and WomenInVc, to source diverse candidates for our internship programs and full-time roles. We commit to 50% of candidates on our shortlists having diverse traits. Attributes such as different cultural backgrounds, ethnicities, and under-represented genders, are considered an additional strength in a candidate’s selection process.
The biggest impact a VC can make is where to invest its money and how to support those investments. Planet A finds and invests in the best and most ambitious founders from a diverse set of demographics, backgrounds, and experiences in order to maximize fund performance.
We source diverse deal flow by tracking diversity metrics in our CRM tools. In reviewing companies for investment, the diversity of the founding teams is one of our assessment criteria.
Recognising that not all people have equal access to venture capital, we invest in and collaborate with projects supporting diverse entrepreneurs to get financing: We mentor female entrepreneurs in Female Office Hours, co-lead the Climate Mosaic Berlin chapter which supports diversity in climate VC and entrepreneurship, are on the advisory board for Village Capital, which supports female founders, as well as sponsor Women in Climate events.
Planet A actively supports its portfolio companies to be leaders in building diverse teams and inclusive cultures. With the introduction of this policy, we will be requiring any portfolio company, where we are the lead investor, to have their own diversity policy in place within 12 months of our investment or before their next round of financing. We are committed to providing support to ensure this happens.
We aim to actively involve female investors in our fund.
We fundamentally believe that transparency is good and try to lead by example. While we have a female partner (which makes us 1 out of 10 European VC funds out there) and a team that is diverse in gender, age, background, and experiences, we’re constantly challenging ourselves to do better. We’re not perfect and we expect this policy to grow and develop as we strive to improve.
This D&I policy is inspired by Creandum’s and Atomico’s policy and their work on diversity as well as Acrobator’s policy.
