Zane Venture Fund, an Atlanta early-stage investing firm, is targeting the initial close of its first, $25 million fund.
The close includes investments from Calendly CEO Tope Awotona and “the Godfather of Angel Investing” Sig Mosley, who’s also a venture partner. The firm also received a seven-figure commitment from a financial institution that declined to be named.
The firm is focused on investing in diverse founders who are creating technology-enabled solutions in the Southeast. Investments range from pre-seed to Series A.
Founding partner Shila Nieves Burney said data supports the idea that diverse teams are more successful than their peers, but founders of color and women still receive abysmal amounts of venture capital. That’s where Zane Ventures comes in.
“Ultimately the foundation of this is to solve the racial wealth gap in our country,” Burney said. “As these entrepreneurs begin to scale and exit, they’ll turn around and start investing in other companies. It’s cyclical.”
Burney founded Zane Venture in 2018 with this goal. Mosley, one of her mentors, later joined the firm because of its commitment to increasing diversity in venture capital and technology. Mosley, a living legend of Atlanta tech, is known for leading the largest venture deal in the Southeast — the $5.7 billion acquisition of Tradex by Ariba.
The firm initially aimed for a $10 million fund but increased to $25 million because of last summer’s social justice protests and the city’s growing technology ecosystem, Burney said.
Zane Venture has invested in two companies so far, an Atlanta financial technology startup and a North Carolina internet-of-things startup, Burney said.
Stefanie Diaz, a serial entrepreneur and investor, and Martina Edwards, the chief of strategic partnerships at Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs Inc., are also partners.
Zane Ventures is industry agnostic but has an emphasis on education technology, financial technology, digital health, cybersecurity and supply chain because of the experiences of the team, Diaz said.
In addition to increasing access to capital for founders of color, the firm wants to prepare those founders for the world of venture capital and scaling their startups. Burney calls it a “360 approach to investing.”
Through the Zane Access program, the firm provides capital readiness events, mentoring and networking to founders in annual cohorts. The 15 founders in the first cohort raised almost $3 million after completing the program, Edwards said.
The firm is planning to increase its cohort to 50 this year.
“There’s so much in terms of terminology and deal structure,” Diaz said. “If you’re negotiating with sophisticated investors, you need to have equal footing.”
