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VC investment screening process creates more exits and fewer failures
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VC investment screening process creates more exits and fewer failures

by
May 14, 2025

Anna Wood is the Editor of Startups Magazine. She joined…

In “The Astia Expert Sift: An Innovative Approach to Investing in Innovation,” Astia, the global VC that invests in companies that include women leaders, analysed a quarter-century of deals using the Expert Sift, its unique investment screening model. It found that the Sift consistently identified more exits (16%) than shut-downs (11%), compared with a 65-75% failure rate in the broader startup market.

Historically, only 2-3% of venture capital dollars have been invested in startups with women CEOs, and just 22.7% to teams with at least one woman. This means over 77% of VC dollars are still invested in all-male founding teams.

Astia estimates that it has now evaluated 16,450 entrepreneurial businesses representing more than $220 billion in early-stage investment opportunity; conservatively translating into 206,600 jobs. In 2024 alone, over 600 high-growth companies submitted materials to Astia for investment consideration, representing nearly $2 billion of investment opportunity. With more than $50 million in AUM invested across 66 companies, Astia’s multi-sector portfolio includes companies driving the future of health, climate, and prosperity. Over the course of Astia’s investment experience, the firm has been on par with top quartile venture metrics, validating the Sift as a deal sourcing and screening tool.

“Since inception, Astia has sought to carve its own path to source, screen and invest in top-performing start-ups that include women leaders,” commented Sharon Vosmek, CEO & Managing Partner, Astia. “As investors, we recognise the critical role of proprietary deal flow to fund performance.  Over 25 years, we have proven that our thesis and methodology is robust across market cycles, from the tech boom and bust to the 2007 financial crisis to today’s post ‘Zero Interest Rate Policy’ (ZIRP) period, we provide our investors with the returns they look for.”

“At JPMorganChase, we recognise that a strong venture capital ecosystem helps to create opportunity and drive local economic growth,” said Shaolee Sen, Head of Small Business Philanthropy at JPMorganChase. “Astia’s research highlights the role investors have to identify and support innovative ventures, as well as generate strong economic returns while fostering meaningful change in the venture capital ecosystem.”

“Mastercard shares Astia’s commitment to supporting innovative ventures that drive strong growth and economic opportunity for all,” said Sherri Haymond, Co-President, Global Partnerships at Mastercard. “This latest research underscores the role of Astia’s Expert Sift model in elevating and creating more opportunities for the high-performing companies they serve, helping to uplift and empower a more balanced venture capital ecosystem.”

See Also
When global labour market data is released, headlines tend to fixate on a single metric: unemployment. This year is no different. According to the latest figures from the United Nations and the International Labour Organisation, global unemployment remains relatively stable at just under five per cent. At face value, this suggests a labour market that is holding firm despite economic uncertainty, geopolitical instability and technological upheaval. In reality, it masks a serious and underreported problem: the true global jobs crisis is not a lack of work, but the growing scale of informal work. More than 2.1 billion people worldwide are employed in the informal economy, including misclassified workers operating outside effective regulatory coverage, where employment is typically unregistered, contracts are absent or unenforced, and access to labour rights and social protections is limited or non-existent. That represents a large portion of the global workforce. If unemployment reveals how many people cannot find work, informality shows how many are working without protection or long-term opportunity. Informal work is often associated with developing economies or unregulated sectors. However, this form of work is increasingly occurring within developed economies and regulated sectors, hidden within otherwise legitimate, fast-growing small and medium-sized enterprises – and this is often unintentional. For both businesses operating solely in domestic markets and those that have expanded abroad, adopting new workforce models and attempting to respond to rapid technological change, the crisis of informality is emerging in three key areas. The first is worker misclassification. Individuals are engaged as independent contractors but operate in practice like employees – working fulltime, at set hours, for years at a time. This is particularly prevalent in gig and platform-based roles, where algorithms determine pay, hours and performance without considering employment rights. Gig and platform work often presents as flexible and empowering, however, in practice, many platforms exercise employer-like control over payment, performance management, hours, and length of engagement, while explicitly avoiding employer obligations such as tax filings and the provision of statutory benefits like annual leave and healthcare. The result is a growing cohort of workers who fall between legal categories, carrying the risks of self-employment without the autonomy or protections that should accompany this mode of work. The second area is cross-border remote work, where informality can inadvertently arise. With post-COVID remote working models here to stay, companies are directly hiring overseas talent, assuming that because the worker is not based in the company’s home country, local employment laws do not apply. Where employment is not properly registered (whether by the employer and/or employee), local labour law is not applied, or social security obligations are misunderstood or ignored, these arrangements can slip into a form of modern informality, even where the relationship appears to be formal on the surface. This is often the point at which organisations begin to seek external guidance. In many cases, neither party fully understands the legal implications of the arrangement, which leaves both employer and worker exposed. We frequently see organisations approach us when a specific issue surfaces, such as payroll inconsistencies, questions around benefits entitlement, or concerns raised by the workers themselves, including registration process failures. Business leaders should also be aware that permanent establishment risk can arise if a remote employee is deemed to represent the company locally, which can trigger corporate tax obligations. Social security errors can happen when contributions are not made correctly in either jurisdiction, leaving workers without coverage and employers facing backdated liabilities. Meanwhile, employment law conflicts can emerge when contracts fail to meet the requirements of the host country regarding notice periods, benefits or termination rights. The third driver of informality is structural. These arrangements are becoming more common as artificial intelligence and evolving workforce models outpace regulation. Businesses are innovating at speed, but legal frameworks are struggling to keep pace. The UK’s Employment Rights Act offers a clear case study of the direction of travel. Worker protections are expanding, classification rules are tightening and enforcement is becoming more coordinated across agencies. Informal arrangements that once sat in legal grey areas are moving firmly into view and what was previously tolerated is falling under scrutiny. The challenge is that informality is rarely a deliberate choice. For many growing organisations, it becomes the default because compliant pathways are complicated and difficult to navigate alone, particularly across multiple jurisdictions. Legal advice, payroll, tax, HR, and immigration compliance are often siloed, leaving gaps that businesses may not even realise exist until a problem arises. For instance, digital nomad visas are often viewed as providing holders with wholly compliant right to work status, however employers may not realise that this is not always the case and contracts may not reflect the correct legal status or entitlements. Addressing informality requires a change in how we think about employment at a global level and recognising that flexibility and compliance are not mutually exclusive. Businesses need models that allow them to access global talent quickly while ensuring workers are properly employed and protected under local law. As attention remains fixed on unemployment figures, informality continues to expand beneath the surface. It is this hidden cohort of workers, contributing economically without security or rights, that represents the real crisis in the global labour market. Solving it will require coordinated action from policymakers and businesses alike, and a commitment to building workforce models that are not only innovative, but sustainable and fair.
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Astia has always pioneered new programs and methodologies to increase VC investment in companies with women leaders. The development of the robust, data-driven methodology behind the Astia Expert Sift is a testament to its efforts to leverage best-in-class tools and wisdom-of-the crowd to eliminate bias in the investment process.

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