Unilever, an Anglo-Dutch listed consumer goods company, has acquired US-based hair and skincare products maker Sundial Brands and agreed to set up a $50m corporate venturing fund for women entrepreneurs of colour.
The New Voices Fund is targeting a final size of $100m to include external limited partners. Bain Capital, a private equity firm that acquired a minority stake in Sundial in September 2015, is reviewing with Unilever’s existing corporate venturing unit, Unilever Ventures, and Sundial’s founder and CEO, Richelieu Dennis, the final set up of the fund, according to an insider.
Dennis founded Sundial in 1991 and it had forecast its 2017 revenues to be $240m. Businesses owned and run by women of color get only 0.2% of all venture capital funding, but have been of increased attention, with Rachel Lam, former head of Time Warner Investments, setting up Imagination Capital with its former CEO, Richard Parsons, earlier this month.
Other VC funds include Backstage Capital, which is looking to raise a second fund to support women- and minority-owned startups, while Babel Ventures, a women-led fund, raised $30m to support Latino entrepreneurs, according to news provider Impact Alpha.
Picture: Richelieu Dennis from Linkedin profile