Impact America Fund closed its third fund earlier this year, becoming only the second early-stage venture firm owned by a Black woman to cross the $100 million threshold-and no doubt carving out a path for many more to follow.Īlready, we are seeing how things are different when women of diverse backgrounds hold decision-making roles in the venture ecosystem–and what that means for founders like Helen Adeosun. As Kesha Cash, the founder of Impact America Fund recently put it, “It’s great for us to be in the game, but the power is in women increasing our AUM.” One way Pivotal helps unlock that power is by coming in early as a first-close investor, as we did for Impact America Fund III. That more expansive approach has led us to funds such as Beta Boom, a fund that invests in software companies that are “building the future for women and multicultural communities.” Although Beta Boom had a relatively small pilot fund I, as we did references on them, we were impressed by the overwhelmingly positive feedback from the founders they’d worked with, so we felt really good about backing fund II.Īt the same time, though, we need to break down the systemic barriers that are keeping women-led funds from expanding their AUM in the first place. However, since women-led funds tend to be smaller, our team is open to looking for other indicators of potential instead. We aren’t lowering the bar in any way, just redefining what it means to meet it.įor example, many investors will only back funds that already have a certain level of assets under management (AUM). Since traditional due-diligence processes tend to privilege asset managers with an established track record–most of whom are white and male–my team is experimenting with alternative models of evaluating investment opportunities. But for it to achieve its potential, it’s essential that a diverse group of people can control, access, and benefit from investment capital. venture capital industry should be an engine of wide-ranging innovation that unlocks broad progress and improves people’s lives. Making matters worse, the last few months have seen a troubling trend of lawsuits targeted at companies that are working to level the playing field for entrepreneurs of color, most notably the ongoing case against the Black woman-led venture capital firm Fearless Fund. Year after year, only about 2% of venture capital funds are going to companies led exclusively by women, and companies founded by Black women receive only a fraction of a percentage point of that funding. I’ve long believed there aren’t enough companies working on market-based solutions to the caregiving crisis–and a key reason why is that there isn’t nearly enough venture capital funding flowing to founders like Helen Adeosun. And as the daughter of Nigerian immigrants, she feels a special connection to the many immigrant women powering the caregiving workforce. So in many ways, she’s the perfect person to create a company that unites cutting-edge education strategies with the unique needs of caregivers. Before she graduated from Harvard with a master’s degree in education policy, Helen occasionally worked as a nanny and in-home caregiver herself. Helen is the founder of CareAcademy, a rapidly growing online training platform for caregivers.
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