Others were paying attention it seems as Nasdaq-listed payments group PayPal said it would commit $50m in eight early-stage, black and latinx-led venture capital funds: Chingona Ventures; Fearless Fund; Harlem Capital; Precursor Ventures; Slauson & Co.; VamosVentures; Zeal Capital Partners; and one undisclosed fund.
The investments are part of PayPal’s commitment to invest $530m to support black-owned businesses, strengthen underrepresented minority communities and fight for racial equity and economic equality announced in the summer.
Dan Schulman, president and CEO at PayPal, said: “Black and latinx founders have been underrepresented in venture capital funding for far too long.
“By directing our dollars to investors from underrepresented communities, we are supporting their investment in black and latinx entrepreneurs at the earliest stages.”
PayPal will work collaboratively with these early-stage funds and, in some cases, invest directly in businesses through PayPal Ventures, its corporate venture capital unit targeting series A through later funding rounds of startups in areas of strategic relevance to PayPal, including financial services, commerce enablement and payments infrastructure.
PayPal will also begin offering a three-month fellowship to a black or latinx graduate student each semester, through which the PayPal Ventures team will provide coaching, training and mentoring.
It is a good commitment and timely. As noted in our editorial earlier in the month, women are currently starting three quarters of new businesses, at least according to some early indicators seen by Barbara Stewart for the CFA Institute, and women of colour accounted for 89% of all businesses started by women in the US last year.
Arian Simone, founding partner of Fearless Fund, said about PayPal’s commitment to its fund: “Women of colour should be able to pitch to people who look like them on the other side of the table.”
Sociologists, such as Chris Rider, professor at University of Michigan, are looking at how artificial intelligence tools, such as neuro-linguistic programming, can help use econometrics tools to uncover further issues or insights.
Corporate venturing has always included senior leaders from a wide spectrum of backgrounds and even when CVC leaders, such as Claudia Fan Munce, former head of IBM Ventures and inaugural chairwoman of Global Corporate Venturing’s Leadership Society, or Brittany Williams, deputy chief of staff at Intel Capital and part of GHC’s diversity, equity and inclusion committee, do leave for new roles then they are still willing to help the community.
