Sacramento-based venture capital investment firm Black Star Fund is raising money for a new fund.
Like the first fund, Black Star's second fund will invest in best-in-class entrepreneurs with an emphasis on companies with Black founders, said founder and CEO Kwame Anku, who launched Black Star Fund in 2018.
Black Star's investor agreement does not require it to invest in startups led by Black founders, but the idea is to "take advantage of what African American founders bring to the marketplace," Anku told the Business Journal.
Black Star raised $12 million for its first fund and invested in 20 companies, including Granite Bay-based ReviverMX Inc. Black Star was one of the first investors in ReviverMX, which is developing street legal digital license plates for cars, trucks and fleets that automatically renew registration with state departments of motor vehicles.
The Black Star portfolio has investments in companies all over the country, including Partake Foods, a vegan cookie company in New Jersey; Resilia, a New Orleans-based software developer for nonprofits; and Actively Black, a leisure and sports apparel company based in Los Angeles.
Anku declined to say how large the new fund will be other than that it will be significantly larger than the current fund.
None of the companies in Anku's first fund have had an exit, either a buyout or an initial public offering, but at least five of the companies are on a strong upward trajectory, Anku said, adding that he anticipates multiple exits in the next 18 months to two years.
"He's got some great companies in there," said Mark Haney, local serial entrepreneur and investor and the co-founder of the Growth Factory accelerator in Rocklin and its associated venture capital fund.
"Success breeds success," Haney said. "What he's done so far gives him a lot of credibility to go out and do it on a larger scale."
The first investors into Anku's first fund were local entrepreneurs Haney, Dale Carlsen and Tom Kandris. Haney is on Black Star's advisory board.
The new Black Star Fund will add to Sacramento's growing startup investor community.
Neville Boston, the co-founder of ReviverMX, met Anku at an event for the Sacramento Kings Capitalize startup pitch competition in 2019. Black Star put two rounds of funding into ReviverMX, Boston said. "He's just been amazing as an investor, an adviser and a brilliant strategist," Boston said.
An earlier version of this article misstated Mark Haney's involvement in Black Star Fund.
