A group of venture funds have signed commitments to invest more than $90 million in North Carolina startups.
The NCInvest initiative, which focuses on minority entrepreneurs, announced the investment Friday, with Vice President Kamala Harris in Durham for the unveiling.
Ten minority and women-led venture capital firms have been awarded a combined $32 million. The NCInvest Initiative, managed by the NC Rural Center, is funded by the State Small Business Credit Initiative, a $10 billion venture capital and debt lending initiative managed by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
The 10 venture funds are:
- North Carolina-based IDEA Fund
- North Carolina-based LeVert Ventures
- North Carolina-based Resilient Ventures
- North Carolina-based RevTech Labs
- California-based Nex Cubed HBCU Founders Fund
- California-based Symphonic Capital
- Florida-based Third Sphere
- New York-based Wocstar Capital
- Maryland-based Latimer Ventures
- Washington, D.C.-based 100KM Ventures
Rodney Sampson, a serial entrepreneur with 25 years in the tech industry, leads the charge as venture capital manager for the NC Rural Center. At least 54 percent of the funds are earmarked for investments in startups founded by those qualifying under the guidelines for Socially and Economically Disadvantaged Individuals.
Sampson said 150 funds from across the nation responded to a request for proposals, a number that was whittled down to 40 and then to 10. The winning firms have committed to investing in North Carolina. They all signed a contract that holds them accountable to that goal, Sampson said.
“We were able to negotiate … that for every one dollar we invested in their funds, they would invest an additional two dollars in North Carolina,” he said.
Sampson said VP Harris’ involvement in the announcement is a testament to what the program means.
“Fund managers from across the nation, coming from various geographic, gender ratio, ethnic and rural backgrounds, it’s just an incredible cohort,” he said.
Harris’ office said that venture funding has long been concentrated in a few parts of the country, with 70 percent of the dollars going to California, New York and Massachusetts. Meanwhile, Black-founded companies typically receive less than 1 percent of venture capital funding annually.
Regarding the funds for North Carolina companies, Harris on Friday said, "It is testament to the innovation that is occurring right here and the need for us to, from Washington, D.C., understand how the nation benefits when we show the capacity of communities when they receive this kind of support and investment."