Unseating Conventions in the VC Scene

Blueprint Ventures’ Huiting Koh highlights the ongoing struggle for inclusive representation in the venture capital landscape.

- LYN CHAN

The venture capital (VC) landscape in Singapore and the region is often likened to a frat group or a boys’ club, where hypermasculinity holds sway in the upper ranks. After all, 67 per cent of Southeast Asia’s venture investors still do not have a female investment decision-maker, according to Women in SE Asia’s VC Ecosystem 2023. The number is equally dismal for women holding board and executive directorships in VC firms — nine and 17 per cent, respectively, as reported in a 2020 study by Singapore’s Diversity Action Committee.

Unsurprisingly, ripples were created when Huiting Koh started the earlystage consumer-first VC fund Blueprint Ventures a year ago in January 2023. Blueprint Ventures stands out as a participant in the growing trend of increased female representation in VC with a team of 75 per cent females. “That (proportion) was not by design,” she emphasises. “It was based on who I felt would be a good person for that role, getting along and working well together.”

AN UNCONSCIOUS BIAS