Moneda Moves (134): Latino Founder-Focused Fund Closes on $100M
Some great news came in last week, Moneda Moves readers, and I wanted to share here how big a deal it is that L’Attitude Ventures (LAT VC) has announced it has officially raised $100 million from multiple leaders in financial services, notably JP Morgan Chase, to focus on and fund Latino entrepreneurs. With this category of early stage founders receiving less than 2% of venture capital funding, LAT VC aims to be a part of the solution to help increase funding in the U.S.
Earlier this year, in a Moneda Moves panel, we also hosted Laura Moreno Lucas, partner at LAT VC to share more of her expertise around being a Latina in the venture capital field and the opportunities to bring capital to Latinx founders. Per a report published by 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 on personal funds. In this episode alongside ShopLatinx founder and CEO Brittany Chavez, she helped demystify the fundraising process and the gaps in the system where it can better serve Latinx founders.
In a statement, JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon wrote: “Latino-led businesses are critical to the U.S. economy but often lack access to capital and resources for growth…Our investment in L’Attitude Ventures builds on our broader commitment to support U.S. Latino entrepreneurs and small businesses across the country.”
Congratulations, LAT VC! Here’s to many more wins in support of Latinx businesses.
Con poder,
Lyanne
Headlines to put your radar.
Only two Latinas have been CEO of a Fortune 500 company: This is definitely not the header we wanted to lead the newsletter with today, but it is an important one. According to a USA Today analysis of the S&P 100, Latina women make only 1.6% of senior executives in the world’s biggest companies. What’s more is they tend to be overrepresented in lower-paying and low-mobility jobs. Of these 92 powerful companies reviewed, 18 had zero Latina women in senior executive positions. The takeaway? Companies can and must do better.
Apple Entrepreneur Camp Opens To Women, Black and Latinx Founders: Applications for the entrepreneur camp are now open to underrepresented founders and developers of app-driven companies. The goal of the camp is to connect accepted applicants to mentorship, guidance from Apple engineers and community to help accelerate their apps. The camp itself will take place in October 2022.
Rising voices in business, fintech, entrepreneurship and beyond.
Latina Money Coaches Helping Immigrants Gain Financial Independence: Maribel Francisco and Delyanne Barros are on a mission to bring financial education to the immigrant and Latinx community. According the US Census, 50% of immigrants in the country come from Latin America, meaning that a lot of education still needs to be done in a way that is accessible to this audience, in their language but also with cultural sensitivities in mind. Both money experts discuss barriers to financial education in this NextAdvisor piece, but also solutions to overcome them.
Thank you for joining us! Until next week, catch us here on Moneda Moves.