Tech firms make diversity commitments to White House

Dozens of venture capital firms and a handful of major tech companies on Tuesday made a series of commitments to the White House aimed at diversifying leadership within their ranks. 

The new promises come as the White House hosts its first ever “demo day,” which will feature 30 startup teams showing off their products, and as lawmakers on Capitol Hill have begun zeroing in on the lack of diversity in the industry. 

{mosads}Forty-five venture capital firms signed a letter to President Obama promising to participate in the 2015 Venture Census, which will measure the amount of diversity in the startup community.

The firms also committed to exploring new HR policies and promised to actively contribute to “programs and initiatives that encourage women and underrepresented minorities” to pursue jobs in the field. 

“These commitments represent the first step in the journey toward building a foundation for a more diverse innovation ecosystem,” read a letter to the president, organized by the National Venture Capital Association. 

The letter was signed by major venture capital firms like Kleiner Perkins Caulfield Byers, which recently faced a high-profile gender discrimination lawsuit brought by Ellen Pao. 

A series of technology companies like Amazon, Box, Microsoft, Xerox and others committed to interviewing women and minority candidates when hiring senior executives, in a process known as the “Rooney Rule.”

The technology industry has for years faced criticism about the lack of diversity within its workforce. And reports have found only a tiny percentage of venture backed startups are led by women (3 percent) or black people (1 percent). 

Reports digging into a number of tech giants’ Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reports from last year found that black employment sat between 2 percent and 4 percent.

A handful of Congressional Black Caucus members are currently in Silicon Valley pressuring tech companies on its Tech 2020 initiative, which launched in May to highlight African-Americans’ lack of representation in the technology industry and to help turn it around in the next five years.