Japan-headquartered telecommunications and internet group SoftBank has formed a $100m fund that will invest in companies led by entrepreneurs and founders who are people of colour, Axios reported yesterday.
The Opportunity Growth Fund was announced by SoftBank chief operating officer Marcelo Claure in an internal letter that stated it will back “companies that use technology to disrupt traditional business models”.
The vehicle’s investments will be supervised by managing partner Shu Nyatta, who is already helping to manage SoftBank’s Claure-headed Latin America Fund. He will work alongside managers at SoftBank Group International, which oversees many of the group’s international subsidiaries.
Stacy Brown-Philpot, CEO of task fulfilment service TaskRabbit, and Paul Judge, co-founder of incubator and seed fund TechSquare Labs, are founding members of Opportunity Growth Fund and will be part of an investment committee alongside Claure as fund advisers.
SoftBank will not take a traditional management fee from the fund, and a portion of its gains will be donated to organisations that provide opportunities for people of colour. It is also forming a diversity and inclusion scheme within the company.
The fund was unveiled alongside news that venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is launching a fund called Talent x Opportunity (TxO) with an initial $2.2m from its partners that will back underrepresented founders.
Past diversity-focused vehicles by corporate venturers include the Catalyst Fund formed by mass media group Comcast in 2011, semiconductor and data technology provider Intel’s $125m Diversity Fund and a $10m vehicle launched by CES owner Consumer Technology Association.
“Founders and entrepreneurs of colour have so much potential, but they face unfair barriers that white founders don’t face,” Claure said in the letter. “This is our opportunity remove those barriers for a new generation of founders.”
