Key Takeaways
- • Amnesty International's landmark July 2021 report found that none of the ten largest venture capital firms surveyed had adequate human rights due diligence policies in place, despite these firms collectively raising over $82 billion in the prior five years.
- • Of 53 organizations assessed (50 VC firms plus three leading tech accelerators: Y Combinator, 500 Startups, and TechStars), only Atomico demonstrated human rights due diligence processes potentially meeting UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights standards.
- • Eight of the top ten VC firms showed no evidence of conducting due diligence to assess whether their portfolio investments could be linked to human rights abuses, including risks related to surveillance, disinformation, user privacy, and online ownership rights.
- • The ten largest firms identified in the VCJ 50 include Insight Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Tiger Global Management, Sequoia Capital, and Lightspeed Venture Partners, among others—collectively representing the most influential capital allocators in technology venture investment.
- • The failure to conduct adequate human rights due diligence represents a breach of the corporate responsibility to respect human rights under internationally endorsed standards, particularly as venture capitalists exert decisive influence over the future development of technology and its societal impact.
Summary
Amnesty International USA released a comprehensive report on July 30, 2021, titled "Risky Business," documenting systemic failures by the world's largest venture capital firms to implement human rights due diligence in their investment decisions. The investigation represents the first large-scale assessment of venture capitalists' adherence to human rights responsibilities and reveals a striking gap between industry influence and accountability mechanisms.
The scope of the analysis was substantial: Amnesty International evaluated all firms on the VCJ 50 ranking—the fifty largest venture capital firms globally—along with three prominent tech accelerators (Y Combinator, 500 Startups, and TechStars). The top ten VC firms alone have raised more than $82 billion over the previous five years, yet the report found that none of these ten leading firms had implemented adequate human rights due diligence policies. The ten firms specifically identified include Insight Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Tiger Global Management, Sequoia Capital, and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
The findings underscore a critical vulnerability in venture capital governance. Eight of the top ten firms showed no evidence of conducting any assessment to determine whether their investments could be linked to human rights abuses. This oversight extends to emerging risk areas including surveillance technology, disinformation, user privacy violations, and online ownership rights—domains increasingly central to venture-backed technology companies. For many leading VC firms, these human rights considerations remain tangential to investment thesis development rather than integral to due diligence protocols.
Among the 53 organizations surveyed, only a single firm—Atomico—demonstrated human rights due diligence processes that potentially aligned with standards established by the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. This disparity highlights the absence of industry-wide standards and suggests that human rights considerations have not been systematized within venture capital decision-making frameworks. The failure to conduct adequate due diligence constitutes a violation of the corporate responsibility to respect human rights under internationally endorsed business and human rights standards, a responsibility that venture capitalists bear given their outsized influence in shaping technology's future trajectory across economies, politics, and societies.
The scope of the analysis was substantial: Amnesty International evaluated all firms on the VCJ 50 ranking—the fifty largest venture capital firms globally—along with three prominent tech accelerators (Y Combinator, 500 Startups, and TechStars). The top ten VC firms alone have raised more than $82 billion over the previous five years, yet the report found that none of these ten leading firms had implemented adequate human rights due diligence policies. The ten firms specifically identified include Insight Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Tiger Global Management, Sequoia Capital, and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
The findings underscore a critical vulnerability in venture capital governance. Eight of the top ten firms showed no evidence of conducting any assessment to determine whether their investments could be linked to human rights abuses. This oversight extends to emerging risk areas including surveillance technology, disinformation, user privacy violations, and online ownership rights—domains increasingly central to venture-backed technology companies. For many leading VC firms, these human rights considerations remain tangential to investment thesis development rather than integral to due diligence protocols.
Among the 53 organizations surveyed, only a single firm—Atomico—demonstrated human rights due diligence processes that potentially aligned with standards established by the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. This disparity highlights the absence of industry-wide standards and suggests that human rights considerations have not been systematized within venture capital decision-making frameworks. The failure to conduct adequate due diligence constitutes a violation of the corporate responsibility to respect human rights under internationally endorsed business and human rights standards, a responsibility that venture capitalists bear given their outsized influence in shaping technology's future trajectory across economies, politics, and societies.
Go deeper than the headline
Research every firm in this story, track the ones that matter and get the daily briefing — free for 7 days.