Top Angel Investors for Women and Founders of Color

Woman and multicultural founders are often judged with exceeding scrutiny. That’s why it’s important to find angel investors with a proven history of investing in diverse founder teams, such as those below.

In this article, we rank angel investors with the highest investing rates in women and founders of color according to available Crunchbase data.

We used the ratio of these angels’ diversity investments to the total number of their investments, or “Diversity Investment Rate,” as a measure of their willingness to invest in women and diverse founders. We also looked at the success of their portfolio as measured by their companies’ exit rate.

Assuming that diverse founders value both the angel investors’ propensity to invest in folks like them and to help them succeed, we combined those two factors in a “combined score,” which is how we arrived at our ranking of angels. Note that we only looked at angels with at least 20 investments since these ratios are much less meaningful for very small portfolios.

Without further ado, here are the top angel investors for women and diverse founders.

Top 50 Angels Investing in Women and Founders of Color

Topping our list of top angel investors for women and founders of color is the late Tony Hsieh. Although the startup community lost Tony some time ago, we decided to keep him on this list as a tribute to his amazing work with founders. Thank you, Tony! You continue to inspire us!

Not including Tony Hsieh, Julie McDermott is the top angel investing in women and founders of color! Rounding out the top three stops are also Marissa Mayer and Joanne Wilson.

Rank	Angel Investor	Diversity Investment Rate	Exit Rate	Combined Score
1	Tony Hsieh	46.4%	63.6%	0.86
2	Julie McDermott	71.4%	10.5%	0.84
3	Marissa Mayer	50.0%	47.8%	0.81
4	Joanne Wilson	57.5%	22.0%	0.75
5	Troy Carter	39.1%	52.2%	0.71
6	Brian Lee	33.3%	58.3%	0.68
7	Ullas Naik	38.6%	46.2%	0.67
8	Jonathan Abrams	36.4%	50.0%	0.67
9	Chung Ng	36.4%	47.4%	0.66
10	Dave Morin	31.1%	56.9%	0.65
11	Ellen Levy	45.2%	27.6%	0.64
12	Matthew Luckett	30.4%	55.6%	0.64
13	Jesse Robbins	28.6%	58.8%	0.63
14	Joe Greenstein	36.4%	40.9%	0.62
15	Deborah Quazzo	48.1%	16.7%	0.62
16	Andy Rankin	23.8%	65.0%	0.62
17	Geoff Judge	33.3%	45.5%	0.61
18	James Pallotta	33.3%	44.4%	0.61
19	Allen Morgan	23.8%	63.2%	0.61
20	Chris M. Willliams	41.7%	27.3%	0.60
21	Dave McClure	28.8%	51.9%	0.60
22	Ben Narasin	29.6%	50.0%	0.60
23	Ron Suber	31.8%	44.4%	0.59
24	Pejman Nozad	21.7%	63.6%	0.59
25	Caterina Fake	31.0%	44.0%	0.58
26	Keith Rabois	20.6%	64.5%	0.58
27	Payam Zamani	37.5%	30.8%	0.58
28	Mark Leslie	34.6%	36.4%	0.58
29	Andrew Mitchell	30.8%	43.8%	0.58
30	Erik Moore	33.3%	38.1%	0.57
31	Marc Andreessen	14.6%	75.0%	0.57
32	Mitchell Kapor	23.6%	56.9%	0.57
33	Erik Blachford	28.0%	47.8%	0.57
34	Paul Sethi	29.4%	44.8%	0.57
35	David Tisch	22.5%	58.5%	0.57
36	Emmett Shear	42.3%	17.4%	0.56
37	Paige Craig	27.7%	46.3%	0.56
38	Shervin Pishevar	24.5%	51.7%	0.55
39	Adeyemi Ajao	24.2%	51.6%	0.55
40	Jonathan Keidan	34.0%	31.7%	0.54
41	Kal Vepuri	36.1%	27.3%	0.54
42	Baron Davis	38.9%	21.6%	0.54
43	Farzad Nazem	19.0%	61.1%	0.54
44	Clark Landry	33.7%	30.9%	0.54
45	Benjamin Ling	25.3%	47.2%	0.53
46	Lee Linden	28.8%	39.7%	0.53
47	Michael Kassan	28.6%	40.0%	0.53
48	Bradley C. Harrison	26.0%	44.4%	0.53
49	Reid Hoffman	24.1%	48.0%	0.53
50	Ben Orthlieb	40.9%	13.6%	0.52

It’s interesting to note that the investors at the top of the above list have moderate portfolios, usually 20-30 investments.

Top 50 Angel Investors by Diversity Investment Rate

Looking at just the diversity investment rate of angel investors with at least 20 investments, we get the following ranking:

Rank	Angel Investor	Number of Investments	Number of Diversity Investments	Diversity Investment Rate
1	Julie McDermott	21	15	71.4%
2	Joanne Wilson	73	42	57.5%
3	Marissa Mayer	28	14	50.0%
4	Deborah Quazzo	27	13	48.1%
5	Tony Hsieh	28	13	46.4%
6	Ellen Levy	31	14	45.2%
7	Emmett Shear	26	11	42.3%
8	Chris M. Willliams	24	10	41.7%
9	Chloe Sladden	24	10	41.7%
10	Ben Orthlieb	22	9	40.9%
11	Jeff Dean	33	13	39.4%
12	Troy Carter	23	9	39.1%
13	Baron Davis	54	21	38.9%
14	Ullas Naik	44	17	38.6%
15	Payam Zamani	40	15	37.5%
16	Andy Dunn	32	12	37.5%
17	Claire Hughes Johnson	24	9	37.5%
18	Julia Hartz	30	11	36.7%
19	Jonathan Abrams	22	8	36.4%
20	Chung Ng	22	8	36.4%
21	Joe Greenstein	22	8	36.4%
22	Andre Iguodala	22	8	36.4%
23	Kal Vepuri	36	13	36.1%
24	Anne Wojcicki	51	18	35.3%
25	Mark Leslie	26	9	34.6%
26	Jonathan Keidan	53	18	34.0%
27	Clark Landry	101	34	33.7%
28	Brian Lee	39	13	33.3%
29	James Pallotta	30	10	33.3%
30	Geoff Judge	24	8	33.3%
31	Erik Moore	24	8	33.3%
32	Holly Liu	24	8	33.3%
33	Sean Rad	21	7	33.3%
34	Drew Houston	31	10	32.3%
35	David Carrico	25	8	32.0%
36	Ron Suber	22	7	31.8%
37	Neil Parikh	22	7	31.8%
38	Dave Morin	61	19	31.1%
39	Caterina Fake	29	9	31.0%
40	Andrew Mitchell	26	8	30.8%
41	Matthew Luckett	23	7	30.4%
42	Shiva Rajaraman	23	7	30.4%
43	Alex Pattis	23	7	30.4%
44	Ben Narasin	27	8	29.6%
45	Semyon Dukach	27	8	29.6%
46	Nasir Jones	44	13	29.5%
47	Paul Sethi	34	10	29.4%
48	Tony Robbins	24	7	29.2%
49	Jack Dorsey	31	9	29.0%
50	Milad Alucozai	31	9	29.0%

Julie McDermott, Joanne Wilson, and Marissa Mayer have the three highest rates of diversity investments in their portfolio. Way to go!

Top 50 Angel Investors by Total Number of Diversity Investments

And finally, looking just at those angels with the most investments in founders of color or women, we have the following ranking:

Rank	Angel Investor	Number of Investments	Number of Diversity Investments	Diversity Investment Rate
1	Edward Lando	436	56	12.8%
2	Mark Cuban	248	46	18.5%
3	Joanne Wilson	73	42	57.5%
4	Marc Benioff	183	40	21.9%
5	Daniel Curran	185	40	21.6%
6	Fabrice Grinda	257	39	15.2%
7	Shervin Pishevar	151	37	24.5%
8	Clark Landry	101	34	33.7%
9	Elad Gil	196	34	17.3%
10	Paul Buchheit	171	33	19.3%
11	Scott Belsky	201	33	16.4%
12	Alexis Ohanian	167	31	18.6%
13	Louis Beryl	116	30	25.9%
14	Wei Guo	145	29	20.0%
15	Wayne Chang	90	26	28.9%
16	Kevin Moore	93	26	28.0%
17	Kevin Hartz	96	26	27.1%
18	Scott Banister	150	24	16.0%
19	JaMes Sowers	80	23	28.8%
20	Kevin Mahaffey	119	22	18.5%
21	Esther Dyson	123	22	17.9%
22	Baron Davis	54	21	38.9%
23	Lee Linden	73	21	28.8%
24	Reid Hoffman	87	21	24.1%
25	Bradley Horowitz	92	21	22.8%
26	David Tisch	89	20	22.5%
27	Kevin Lin	108	20	18.5%
28	Dave Morin	61	19	31.1%
29	Benjamin Ling	75	19	25.3%
30	Tim Draper	107	19	17.8%
31	Gokul Rajaram	190	19	10.0%
32	Naval Ravikant	264	19	7.2%
33	Anne Wojcicki	51	18	35.3%
34	Jonathan Keidan	53	18	34.0%
35	Sahin Boydas	69	18	26.1%
36	Cyan Banister	103	18	17.5%
37	Lachy Groom	110	18	16.4%
38	Sam Altman	111	18	16.2%
39	Ullas Naik	44	17	38.6%
40	Dave McClure	59	17	28.8%
41	Eric Schmidt	59	17	28.8%
42	Bryan Rosenblatt	68	17	25.0%
43	Justin Kan	78	17	21.8%
44	Justin Mateen	134	17	12.7%
45	Jon Oringer	149	17	11.4%
46	Max Levchin	102	16	15.7%
47	Tom Williams	117	16	13.7%
48	Julie McDermott	21	15	71.4%
49	Payam Zamani	40	15	37.5%
50	Avichal Garg	61	15	24.6%

Once again, those angels with the biggest portfolios don’t necessarily have the highest diversity investment rates.

Target Less Active Angels

Perhaps the most interesting finding of our analysis is that those angels with the most angel investments seem to also have among the lowest diversity investment rates.

Out of about 900 investors in our data set, the most active angel investors cluster around the middle of the list with regard to their diversity investment rate. Incidentally, many of the most active angels also tend to have mediocre exit rates of their portfolio companies.

What does this mean for female founders and founders of color?

Perhaps the best investors for diverse founders are those with a moderate level of activity rather than the most active and often most well-known ones.

An Important Caveat on the Data Set

As with all data, there are likely some missed or inaccurate data points. All data for this analysis came from Crunchbase, and it seems accurate enough for comparative purposes. However, I would not worry too much about whether the 26th ranked investor should really be in the 25th spot, for example.

It’s worth noting that this data is from Crunchbase, which classifies “Diversity Investments” as those in startups founded or led by individuals that identify as Black or African American, Native American, Middle Eastern/North African, South Asia, East Asian, Southeast Asian, Pacific Islander, or Woman. While Black, Latinx, and female founders seem to be fairly accurately recorded in the dataset, other groups are clearly undercounted from a spot check we performed.

Conclusion

Underrepresented founders face enough hurdles in their journey, and hopefully, this list is a good starting point for those of you looking for angel investors that will evaluate you and your startup fairly.

Also, be sure to check out our mega guide for finding and pitching angel investors.

As always, I look forward to your comments and feedback on this list!

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