Black Tech Nation Ventures celebrated the closing of $25 million in raised funds, a milestone halfway to its $50 million goal and one that was achieved less than a year since its formation, with a fund launch party at PNC Park Wednesday night. The Pittsburgh-based venture capital group, which is focused on offering seed and Series A levels of funding to Black and diverse tech startups in Pittsburgh and around the country, also announced during the celebration that it made its first investment in a growing company.
"It's really amazing to have now a first close just a year later, which is wild," Kelauni Jasmyn, one of three BTNV general partners, said. "I think it's a testament to how important (the work that) we're doing is because it was almost, I don't want to say easy because fundraising is not easy, but the amount of excitement around being able to support something like this from our LPs is what really is special to me about putting this together with my partners."
Jasmyn, who also founded the Black Tech Nation community group of local Black tech entrepreneurs, first started forming the fund in 2020 with general partners David Motley, president and CEO of managed services provider MCAPS LLC and co-founder of the African American Directors Forum; and Sean Sebastian, founding partner of Birchmere Ventures. It now expects to reach its $50 million funding milestone by the summer of 2022.
"Every now and again in your life, you get the opportunity to be a part of something that's bigger than you are, and I think with Black Tech Nation Ventures, the three of us are part of something that's bigger than any one of us," Motley said. "We have the opportunity to create a bridge — a bridge between dreams and reality."
Motley said a big part of that bridge involves offering capital to groups that have historically been left out of funding opportunities. But another core part of that bridge, Motley said, is adding networking and knowledge sharing between those with capital and those, like startup founders, who are seeking it.
Between the three general partners, Motley said he thinks they'll be uniquely equipped to provide both pieces of that bridge to the portfolio companies that the group invests in.
"We're just first steps into this journey, it's got miles and miles to go," Sebastian said. "There's great excitement, great opportunity in front of us."
Sebastian said BlendEd, a Cleveland-based startup founded by David Boone that offers a software platform for community college professors to build and share engaging courses, offers exactly the kind of excitement and opportunity BTNV is looking to fund. It's the first startup that BTNV invested in with capital from the fund, though it did not disclose the financial total of the investment.
"I'm really excited to be here, as the first investment of Black Tech Nation Ventures," Boone said. "Really what that ultimately means to me, yes, there's a dollar amount and it's very significant and meaningful, but it also means it's an opportunity to be a part of a change. A shift is happening. As someone who grew up knowing that they wanted to start a business someday, I think that a lot of times the way I thought about that was very limited. And so to be able to see more examples like David Motley, like Kelauni, who are going out and building businesses of incredible scale and showing more Black and Brown kids like myself that it's possible to be a part of that wave is truly phenomenal."
Boone said he plans to use part of the funding to add more employees, currently at eight people, so it can continue to build a platform that "ultimately is going to change the way that people teach."
BlendEd's funding is a start much like the celebrated $25 million fundraising milestone is for BTNV.
"This is quite a moment for us, definitely for me, and is just the beginning for Black Tech Nation Ventures," Jasmyn said. "It's been quite a ride."
