Brown Venture Group expanding partnership to fund Native American entrepreneurs

Brown Venture Group, the Minneapolis-based venture capital firm that has funded Black and Latino-owned tech companies, is now solidifying relationships to invest in Native American startups. 

That's been one of Brown Venture Group's goals since it was founded in 2018, but the venture capital firm recently partnered with three tribal governments across the country to accelerate the plan: 

Brown Venture Group Managing Partner and Co-Founder Paul Campbell said the group will also work directly with Native American startups, but the relationships with those tribal governments will help foster connections. He added that his VC firm is talking with two tribal governments in Minnesota, but declined to disclose which ones since those relationships aren't finalized yet. 

"We knew there were great ideas but there were no relationships with indigenous communities," he said in an interview. "With what we have in our waterways, it could be 30, 60, 90 days" before capital is deployed to Native American startups. 

Campbell used the term "waterways" and not "pipelines" since waterways symbolize life while pipelines symbolize destruction in Native American communities.

Brown Venture Group knew Black and Latino communities have been traditionally underserved in various ways, but Native American groups have been so secluded that getting good data on them has been difficult, Campbell said.

To date, Brown Venture Group has made 13 investments in Black- and Latino-owned startups. The investments range from $25,000 to $3 million.

Brown Venture Group anticipates reaching its $50 million fundraising goal for its inaugural fund soon.

Campbell hinted other investments in other startup communities could be in the works in the future, but declined to provide specifics.

"I would say right now that there are other groups that experience economic barriers to contribution," he said. "They go beyond Black, Indigenous and" Latino.