23. Hsu, D. H. (2005, November 27). What do entrepreneurs pay for venture capital affiliation? The Journal of Finance, 59(4), 1805–1844. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6261.2004.00680.x; Sørensen, M. (2007, November 28). How smart is smart money? A two-sided matching model of venture capital. The Journal of Finance, 62(6), 2725–2762. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6261.2007.01291.x 24. Series A preferred stock leads on from the angel/seed stages, and is the first significant round of venture capital funding where Series A preferred stock is offered by a portfolio company to the venture capitalist. Series A preferred stock is convertible into common stock in certain cases such as an IPO or the sale of the company. Preqin. (2025). Alternative asset investor types: Definitions. https://www.preqin.com/academy/industry-definitions/alternative-asset-investor-types- definitions 25. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). (2022). Women in inclusive entrepreneurship. https://www.oecd.org/en/topics/sub-issues/inclusive-entrepreneurship/women-in-inclusive-entrepreneurship.html 26. Founders Forum Group. (2025, May 23). Women in VC & startup funding: Statistics and trends (2025 report). https://ff.co/ women-funding-statistics-2025/; Solal, I., & Snellman, K. (2023, February 1). For female founders, fundraising only from female VCs comes at a cost. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2023/02/for-female-founders-only-fundraising- from-female-vcs-comes-at-a-cost; The Alan Turing Institute. (2024). Rebalancing innovation: Women, AI and venture capital in the UK (2nd report). https://www.turing.ac.uk/news/publications/rebalancing-innovation 27. Teare, G. (2025, October 6). Q3 venture funding jumps 38% as more massive rounds go to AI giants and exits gain steam. Crunchbase. https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/global-vc-funding-biggest-deals-q3-2025-ai-ma-data/; Bradbury, R. (2025, July 15). 12 firms collected over 50% of all venture cash in the first half of 2025. PitchBook. https://pitchbook.com/ news/articles/us-venture-capital-firm-concentration-first-half-2025-founders-fund Transforming Capital for the Next Era: Gender Parity and the Expansion of the Investable Frontier 21

Transforming Capital for the Next Era 2025