A venture capital internship program operated by a network of historical black colleges and universities announced 41 fellows from underrepresented backgrounds who were selected for internships at VC firms across the country, including in Chicago.
HBCUvc, a program that aims to increase access to capital for Black, Indigenous and Latinx entrepreneurs, launched in 2019. The program, created with Annenberg Foundation and PledgeLA, coordinated 10-week internships for its fellows at Los Angeles-based firms.
But this year, the program is expanding nationally, focusing on other cities, such as Chicago, San Francisco and Birmingham, Alabama. To fuel the expansion, HBCUvc brought on new partners like 50 South Capital, Concrete Rose Community Foundation, Foundry Group, Alabama Power.
Each of the 41 interns identifies as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color), and will spend the summer working directly with VC partners.
Nine of the fellows are working at Chicago-based firms, including Carolina Galdiz, who will intern at Chingona Ventures; Elisa Zerabruck, who will intern at Corazon Capital; Johnnie Yu, who will intern at Listen Ventures; Jordyn Starr, who will intern at 50 South Capital; Kara Barclay, who will intern at 7Wire Ventures; Kenny Allen, who will intern at Sandalphon Capital; Terea Danso-Danquah, who will intern at Energize Ventures; Taiwo Fatoki, who will intern at Hyde Park Venture Partners and Harshit Bansal, who will intern at Origin Ventures. (See the full list of HBCUvc’s summer interns here.)
The announcement comes after a year in which the venture capital industry in Chicago and around the country has been criticized for its lack of diversity that often leads to racial homogeneity among investments. About 2.6% of venture capital dollars are going to Black and Latinx founders, according to a Crunchbase report.
To address the problem in Chicago, numerous venture funds, accelerator programs and other types of organizations have launched with diversity at the heart of their missions, and some of them are making a difference.
Data released in August 2020 from Chicago Blend, a VC-led organization aiming to diversify the local tech scene, showed that the number of women working at Chicago VC firms had increased from 28% in 2018 to 32% in 2020.
When it came to race and ethnicity, people of color made up about 19% of the local VC industry compared to 14% two years ago.
