AAA CTA’s diversity fund backs VC duo

CTA’s diversity fund backs VC duo

Consumer Technology Association (CTA), the trade body that operates the annual CES convention, is set to back venture capital firms Harlem Capital Partners and SoGal Ventures, VentureBeat has reported.

The commitments appear to be the first to be made from CTA’s $10m diversity-focused fund, which backs VC firms, funds and entrepreneurship initiatives led by women, people of colour and other underrepresented groups.

Harlem Capital Partners is a minority-owned VC firm that aims to invest in 1,000 founders from underrepresented backgrounds over the next 20 years, while SoGal Ventures is a female-led firm focused on startups with diverse management in the US and Asia.

Tiffany Moore, senior vice-president of political and industry affairs at CTA, said the company had taken note of concerns over the underrepresentation of women during CES keynote speeches.

Moore added: “[The criticism] created an opportunity for us to take an inventory of what we were doing as an association and as an industry. Making sure that we were contributing to solutions, particularly in the venture space, to make sure that we didn’t miss out on that next innovation because a woman founder could not get access to funding.”

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