Richelieu Dennis, founder of SheaMoisture products and current owner of Essence Magazine, recently announced the launch of a $100 million investment fund aimed to pump capital into businesses owned by minorities.
The new endeavor, which Dennis named New Voices Fund, is part of a promise he made to elevate women and entrepreneurs of color back in 2017 when he sold SheaMoisture to Unilever. About $70 million is still up for grabs after an initial $30 million was invested into several black women’s businesses.
Black women are covering a lot of ground as entrepreneurs, according to Blackenterprise.com. The number of black women to raise more than $1 million from venture capitalists have tripled in the last year, increasing from 11 to 34, and black women have also seen a 250 percent hike in startups. The number of startups owned by the demographic now stands at 227, in comparison to 84 back in 2016.
Despite great entrepreneurial progress – black women have founded businesses at higher rates than others in recent years – investment lags dismally behind. In 2018, investment into black women’s businesses represented a mere .02 percent of all venture capitalist dollars.
