Level 20

Level 20 is a European industry body working to increase the number of women in senior roles in private equity and venture capital. It launched in the UK in 2015 with twelve co-founders, all senior women in the industry, and reports more than 7,250 members across 20 European countries organised into thirteen chapters. Individual membership is free and open to anyone working in private equity and venture capital or in firms that support it, women and men alike; the organisation is funded instead by more than 120 sponsor firms, which are private equity and venture capital GPs and LPs operating in Europe. Its four current initiatives are professional networking, career development, research and insight, and industry engagement. The mentoring programme is the best-known of these: Level 20 reports more than 1,450 mentees across one-to-one and group programmes since 2015, starting from a 23-pair UK pilot, and says 85% of mentees stay in the industry. Its research includes a European gender diversity report and country-level studies, produced partly with the Inclusion Initiative at the London School of Economics.

How it works

Individuals apply through the member portal at no cost and are matched to programming by role, seniority, sector, strategy and firm type. Chapters, run by volunteer committees, organise local events and mentoring cohorts; the London-based staff team runs research, the careers portal and the sponsor relationship. Firms engage separately as sponsors, which is how the organisation is funded.

Typical member

Members work in private equity and venture capital or in firms that support the industry, at all seniority levels. Membership is open to both women and men, who participate as members, speakers, mentors and research contributors. The organisation's stated goal is increasing the representation of senior women, particularly in investment roles.

Level 20 inverts the usual funding model in this category: members pay nothing and the sponsor firms carry the cost, which removes price as a barrier but also means members are not the customer. In practice that shows up in what is on offer: mentoring, events, research and a careers portal rather than deal flow or a private directory. Programming is concentrated in Europe, so a member outside those 20 countries gets little. The organisation is candid about its own metric: women in senior investment roles across Europe at 14%, against an estimated 5% when it started in 2015, which is real movement but well short of parity. Anyone comparing it with PEWIN should note the difference in gate: PEWIN requires ten years and a senior title plus a member nomination, Level 20 requires neither.

Editorial analysis by Peer Group Guide editors. It is separated from the record above and follows the editorial policy.