With increasing calls for more diversity in companies and funding for founders of color, a local firm is looking to invest in underrepresented entrepreneurs.
TXV Partners, a diversity-focused seed to Series A investment firm with offices in Austin, Dallas and San Francisco, is teaming up with local Hispanic and multicultural communications agency LERMA/ on a new venture aimed at finding, mentoring and investing in Black- and Hispanic-founded startups.
“We share a vision to help inclusivity and diversity be the norm for enterprises of all sizes, and to tackle this in the United States, in Latin America and other booming global markets where opportunity arises,” said Marcus Stroud, TXV co-founding partner, in a statement.
Through the partnerships, the group will seek to identify startups working in a number of industries across the U.S. and Latin America. They hope in addition to helping fund founders from underrepresented demographics, the growth of the startups will help spur economies in communities that have been marginalized.
“Minority-owned firms have a uniquely catalytic effect in creating opportunity for under-represented populations. Joining forces… we will be able to magnify our ability to build markets with and in minority communities, creating value,” said TXV founding partner Brandon Allen in a statement. “This represents a great hope for the companies we fund, as well as for the communities they serve.”
The move comes amid a nationwide focus on diversity, equity and inclusion sparked by the killings of unarmed Black people. According to the Harvard Business Review, only 1 percent of VC-backed entrepreneurs are Black and TechCrunch reports that only 3 percent of venture capital investors are Black. And, according to investor Marlon Nichols, more than 75 percent of all startup funding rounds go to all white founding teams.
Stroud said the initiative is part of “decisive and transformative” change in the ecosystem. Stroud and Allen represent that underrepresented community of VCs. The pair started TXV in 2018, launching with a $50 million debut fund in Dallas. It counts California-based fitness training platform Future.fit, Palo Alto-based business connection software startup Namecoach and Netherlands-based aviation software company Kambr in its portfolio.
“We read and hear about so many agencies and holding companies talking about their future plans regarding diversity and social equality. We prefer to do rather than to talk,” Stroud said. “The time for change is now. And the change cannot be gradual. It has to be decisive and transformative.
