Moneda Moves (147): 💸 Changing the Face of Venture Capital
And we’re off to the races, mi gente! The first few weeks of the new year have been action-packed for Latinos and money news. While we load up our next season of the Moneda Moves podcast, we are witnessing some big moves in the venture capital space, especially firms that are investing in Latino and BIPOC founders. So, here goes our hat tip to these Latine-led firms this month:
Red Bike Capital, closing equity investment from Bank of America: The Latine-led venture capital firm Red Bike Capital is focused on investing in early stage companies powering the economy and now has received investment from Bank of America. The venture capital firm is led by Rachel ten Brink, co-founder of Scentbird which raised $29M in venture funding and Herman Goihman, a fintech expert who started his career in banking. In a LinkedIn post, ten Brink shared:
“There is a huge wave of economic power coming behind us - one in four Gen Z’s is Latino and we represent 70% of the growth in the US labor force. We are contributing significantly to the future of this country.”
Mendoza Ventures, for making the first close on its new $100 million fund: The close is led by Bank of America and will continue to fund diverse founders in fintech, AI and cybersecurity. The firm is steered by Latinx co-founders Adrian Mendoza and Senofer Mendoza.
Per the leaders, they’ve allocated 80 percent of its second fund to underrepresented founders. Past investments have included Alyce, a platform that uses artificial intelligence for corporate gifting and Daylight, a the LGBTQIA+ neobank.
In the United States, where Latinos start more businesses than other racial group in the country and by some stats still receive less than two percent of venture capital funding, changing the face of VC owners and who holds the money to be invested will be a big part of increasing this stat and routing more funds to deserving founders.
Con poder,
Lyanne
Headlines to put your radar.
Addressing the venture capital gap for Latina founders: This was a central topic at a recent Latinas in Tech event hosted at Nasdaq’s San Francisco’s office. (A pleasure seeing my previous employer in this article by Daniela Pierre-Bravo as well.) Here, venture capitalists and Latina tech founders came together to identify the issues responsible for the gap and solutions.
Among the topics discussed were:
Lack of access to networks, meaning that Latinas often have to bootstrap using savings. “So many founders that are minority women have to bootstrap on their own, just to get attention in a first meeting,” Samara Mejia Hernandez, founder of Chingona Ventures, was quoted saying.
The lack of Latino-led venture capital firms, with Latino investors of this kind representing only two percent of the industry.
The need for more stories of successful Latinas in entrepreneurship, as defined by Sandra Campos, former CEO of Diane von Furstenberg, who was among the hosts of the event.
Rising voices in business, fintech, entrepreneurship and beyond.
Latina-owned Nopalera makes its debut on Shark Tank: My calendar is marked, alarms are set, as clean beauty brand Nopalera and its CEO Sandra Velasquez prepare to take the stage on Shark Tank this week. Not on your calendar yet? Set your clocks. This episode featuring the Chicana brand will air on Friday, January 20 at 8 PM ET on ABC.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Velasquez just last year for a story about the power of storytelling in TIME Magazine. Perhaps one of the reasons she became such a strong storyteller is because she discovered the power in it when she was touring as lead for her band, Pistolera. Today, she in undeniably a jefa of many talents.
Thank you for joining us! Until next time, catch us here on Moneda Moves.