DEI has been a hot-button topic as billionaires and lawsuits question whether its needed. Black VCs who specifically back startup founders of color are undeterred by these efforts. These Black VCs hope to change the industry by investing in more underrepresented startup founders.
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Diversity, equity, and inclusion has been a hot topic of conversation lately — especially among billionaires who don’t see the need for it, DEI initiatives have been intensely scrutinized after the US Supreme Court struck down the use of affirmative action in college admissions last year, and that’s had ripple effects in the business world. There’s been an ongoing backlash against corporate DEI. And that’s manifested in DEI departments paring down and legal action, like the ongoing lawsuit against the VC firm Fearless Fund by a conservative nonprofit claiming its grant program is discriminatory. Funds like Fearless Fund and many featured on this list were buoyed by corporate pledges to focus on DEI more in hiring and funding in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in the summer of 2020. But now, nearly four years later, much of that progress appears in danger of being scaled back because DEI has fallen out of favor in parts of the corporate world. Yet, billionaires like JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon and Mark Cuban believe diversity should remain a priority. For VC firms with investments theses centered on backing underrepresented startup founders, many remain undeterred in light of the grim state of play. “We will continue doing what we were set up to do,” wrote Claude Grunitzky, the CEO of The Equity Alliance, in a recent newsletter. “If some investors are now getting cold feet over our DEI mandate, over our focus on racial and gender equity, that’s alright. We are not shaking in our boots.” Many other Black VCs are addressing long-standing DEI issues in the VC industry by slowly moving the investing needle toward more underrepresented founders who have traditionally been overlooked.
