Watermill Group Launches WMX to Back Gender-Diverse Teams

Private investment firm Watermill Group has launched a new initiative, WMX, to bring private capital and resources to gender-diverse teams.

Founded by Watermill Group President and Chief Operating Officer Julia Karol, the WMX initiative will focus on funding late-stage companies led by women, according to a press release published last week.

Research has demonstrated that companies with diverse teams outperform their peers, yet historically they have attracted far less capital. McKinsey reported that companies in the top quartile for gender diversity are 21% more likely to have higher financial returns than other businesses. Still, in the first half of 2019, only 3% of venture capital dollars went to female-led companies.

“It is deeply unjust for some entrepreneurs and teams to have fewer opportunities than their male peers to monetize their hard work launching, sustaining and growing businesses,” Karol writes. “Given the historically superior performance of gender-diverse teams, their lack of access to capital simply makes no sense.”

Through the WMX initiative, Lexington, Massachusetts-based Watermill will invest in businesses that are either led by a woman or that have a management team that consists of at least two female leaders. It seeks businesses with $20 million to $200 million in revenue and will pursue companies across a wide range of industries, according to WMX investment criteria available on Watermill’s website.

Karol will discuss the launch of WMX at ACG Boston’s Women’s Connection event, “Financing and Investing in Women-Led Businesses,” on March 18, hosted at BNY Mellon Wealth Management’s office in Boston.

Read the full press release at watermill.com.