US-listed media group Comcast has committed at least $20m to a corporate venturing fund to invest in entrepreneurs from minority backgrounds.
The fund will be part of its existing corporate venturing group, Comcast Interactive Capital.
It is being set up in a bid to convince the US authorities to allow its proposed takeover of General Electric’s local broadcaster NBC Universal by the country’s biggest cable operator.
In a letter to Repulican congressman Bobby Rush, David Cohen, executive vice president at Comcast, said: "Comcast will establish a venture capital fund intended to expand opportunities for minority entrepreneurs (including African American entrepreneurs) to develop new media content and applications."
The letter was sent ahead of a hearing on Thursday headed by Rush into the merger, which was announced last year.
Comcast declined to comment on how its merger might affect NBC’s corporate venturing fund, Peacock, which is managed as a joint venture with GE.