Moneda Moves (119): A Big Week For Latinas In Venture Capital
It was a big week for Latinas in venture capital.
Congratulations to Laura Moreno Lucas who was officially named to Partner at L’ATTITUDE Ventures earlier this week on International Women’s Day! Laura and I first met at Nasdaq and had the pleasure of working with her on panels at the L’ATTITUDE Conference and learning about the VC firm’s vision to increase funding funneled to Latinx founders. Now, we are spreading the word about the work LAT VC is doing and Laura’s privileged role in it.
💰For context: Latinx founders have received less than one percent of $487 billion invested across some of the top 500 largest venture capital and private equity deals in 2020. LAT VC is a whole $100 million fund focused on investing in Latino entrepreneurs and setting out to change the faces and landscape of VC funding. As we grow in number of Latino funds, Latina representation especially at partner level is so critical to the ecosystem and bringing representation to the space.
This week, she was also featured in journalist’s Nicole Casperson’s Workweek newsletter covering all the highlights in fintech: WTFintech? which is my current favorite read featuring diverse fintech founders.
I love witnessing my Latina peers win and I am passionate about actively bridging my worlds: The media and the money universe. For the first time we find ourselves in a more diverse media ecosystem where we are making tables for stories about the role models in our own communities. This is what my journalist spirit envisioned, and it’s clear we are not alone.
💪🏽This is what progress looks like, mi gente.
Con poder,
Lyanne
Headlines to put on your radar.
Lolita Taub launches her own community-driven venture capital firm: There’s plenty of venture capital news to celebrate about Latinas this week — venture capital figure Lolita Taub launched her own firm called Ganas Ventures. Her focus will be on historically “overlooked” founders and focus on the United States and Latin America. The fund has a target of $9.99 million, with $1.2 million raised from investors thus far.
“Instead of go-to market, to me, the future is go-to community,” Taub told TechCrunch.
How Latino entrepreneurs are coming together to help build their businesses: Latino entrepreneurs have historically had hardship attaining the capital they need from banks and investors needed to survive and scale, so some Latino founders in the Boston area are taking matters into their hands and that of their community. A big gap members are looking to fill? Connection to resources through professional groups (like Association of Latino Professionals for America) and beyond.
Per a report from McKinsey, “Latinos have the lowest rate of using bank and financial institution loans to start their businesses compared with other racial and ethnic groups,” leaving them to rely more so on personal funds and while some venture capital partners like the ones mentioned in this newsletter are on a mission to change the landscape, the need for help is dire and immediate.
Rising voices in business, fintech, entrepreneurship and beyond.
Laura Moreno Lucas named partner at LAT VC: As a recap of our major announcement at the top of this newsletter, Laura was named partner at LAT VC. The big picture? LAT VC is a $100 million fund focuses on Latina and Latino Entrepreneurs. Per 2021 reports from LatinxVC, only two percent of partner-level investment professionals are Latinx. This presents a sizable opportunity to help funnel funds from venture capital firms to founders who are Latinx.
Moneda Moves is featured on Spanish digital feature — Prospecto Latino: We were featured in an interview with Marlene Peralta this week in an interview in Spanish, speaking about the Latino GDP, our power as consumers but also builders in the U.S. economy. If you have any Spanish-speakers in your life, please send it on!
Thank you for joining us! Until next week, catch us here on Moneda Moves.