The venture and startup world has traditionally operated as something of a closed club, with Black and Latinx people largely left out.
While the doors haven't exactly been flung wide open to such underrepresented groups, they are starting to open a bit wider, new data from Crunchbase suggests.
Startups led by Black founders collectively raised $1.8 billion in the first half of this year, according to Crunchbase. That topped both the $1 billion such companies raised in all of last year and the $1.4 billion they raised in all of 2019. Indeed the amount is four times larger than what Black-founded companies raised in the first half of 2020.
At least a few Black and Latinx-founded startups are raising some serious cash. Thus far this year, two such companies have raised more than $700 million in funding. Another one has raised more than $650 million.
Crunchbase on Wednesday posted a list of the 30 Black- or Latinx-founded startups that were among those that had raised the most money so far this year across the nation. Bay Area companies led the way. Eleven of the startups on Crunchbase's list are based in the region, including the three that topped the rankings.
New York had the second-best showing, placing nine startups on the list. But one of its companies, Goldbelly Inc., got its start in the Bay Area.
Still, despite the progress, the startup and venture industry has a long way to go to be truly equitable and inclusive. While African-Americans comprise 13.4% of the U.S. population, just 1.2% of the funds that poured into American startups in the first half of this year went into ones with at least one Black founder.
Likewise, Latinx people account for 18.5% of the population. But over the past six years, just 2.4% of venture money invested in startups went to those with either a Black or a Latinx founder, according to a report from Google.
To illustrate the funding gap another way, startups needed to have raised at least $60 million this year to make Crunchbase's new list of the best-funded Black and Latinx-founded companies. To make the list of the 30 best-funded startups overall this year, a company would have needed to have raised at least $645 million — an amount topped by just three startups that have Black or Latinx founders.
To see Crunchbase's list of the best-funded Black- and Latinx-founded startups in the Bay Area, check out the gallery above.
