It's a theme of history, Erikan Obotetukudo said, that when Black people around the world have built economic prosperity, white people have often destroyed it.
Her conclusion isn't without evidence. White rioters ransacked the wealthy and vivacious Greenwood community in Tulsa, Oklahoma, also known as Black Wall Street, in 1921. White rioters also attacked Black prosperity in the Wilmington, North Carolina massacre of 1898 and the Atlanta massacre of 1906. That's not to mention the legacy of European colonialism in Africa.
"As a Black person, you grow up knowing that there's danger associated with being economically free and powerful," Obotetukudo said. "You know that you can die if you become too wealthy."
That's one reason Obotetukudo founded Los Angeles venture capital firm Audacity Capital, which focuses on investing in Black-owned startups working in the cryptocurrency space. Black wealth built on cryptocurrency, which tracks transactions digitally using blockchain technology, can theoretically never be destroyed.
"Once it's there, it lives on forever," Obotetukudo said.
Cryptocurrencies are digital currencies protected by cryptography and kept track of by a chronological database technology called blockchain. There are thousands of cryptocurrencies and each one works a little differently. Cryptocurrencies are often decentralized — not issued by a government or other authority. In the case of the most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, we don't even know who invented it – although there are theories.
Captivated by the boon Obotetukudo felt cryptocurrency could be for Black people, she began building Audacity in late 2020. The firm raised its inaugural fund between March and June, which Obotetukudo described as being in the "seven figures."
The firm has invested in three startups who will be announced soon, and there are 200 more potential companies around the world the firm is vetting for investment, Obotetukudo said. Audacity is currently raising money for its next fund, which will range from "eight to nine figures."
Audacity is looking to invest in companies that are making strides in internet crypto-compensation, which could include paying workers in cryptocurrencies or paying people for playing games or surfing the web, among other things, Obotetukudo said. The company will also emphasize investing in startups in overlooked international markets, she added.
It isn't just its theoretically indestructible nature that makes cryptocurrency appealing to Obotetukudo, she said. She's equally captivated by the digital currencies' freedom from the whims of governments.
A personal experience spurred some of Obotetukudo's distrust in government-backed currencies. In 2015, Obotetukudo was working for an American-based startup company in Nigeria. A client of her employer needed to pay the company. The problem was, the digital tools that were available to transfer the Nigerian naira would have taken too long. They could have used an American bank, but there was the risk the transaction would be flagged as precarious — which American banks often do to innocuous Nigerian exchanges, Obotetukudo said. With no other available options, the client paid with a big bag of millions of naira — $15,000 worth.
Of course, Obotetukudo still needed to get the money into her company's hands. With a money bag in hand, she rode a cab to a local bank. But there was more trouble. The naira had just crashed, so Nigerian banks were holding on to their American dollar reserves. Her only choice was to pack up the money, fly to Ghana, deposit it in a Ghanaian bank account, and, finally, send it to New York.
"That was two weeks of carrying money at risk," she said. "That let me know that we can't be dealing with money anymore."
That experience taught Obotetukudo that residents of countries lacking in geopolitical clout needed a currency that they could exchange with no worries about banks or the pangs of state-backed currency.
Of course, crypto isn't without its critics. Some, like investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, have argued that crypto is too volatile and that sovereign authorities should retain the exclusive right to issue currency.
But Obotetukudo isn't putting much stock into those critiques.
"Listen, I'm a Black woman in the United States," Obotetukudo said. "This government was supposed to do right by me but in many cases hasn't."
Prior to becoming a venture capitalist, Obotetukudo was a musician. At 16, she brought her clarinet, saxophone, flute and voice skills on a tour of Europe. She also worked as an HIV and AIDS researcher.
