Brown Venture Group, a Black-owned venture capital firm in the Twin Cities that provides funds exclusively to Black, Latino and Native American-owned technology startups, announced Tuesday that it will get up to $1.5 million from the Bush Foundation as part of its inaugural fund.
The Bush Foundation invests in community innovation projects across Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and the 23 Native nations that share that geography. It joins the Brown Venture Group's list of limited partners in the venture capital firm's inaugural fund — called the Brown Venture Group Fund One — with its $1.5 million investment.
"We believe that the investment is just a signal of a much deeper alignment and a much stronger future partnership," said Chris Brooks, Brown Venture Group co-founder and managing partner.
Brown Venture Group launched its first fund with a goal of raising $50 million in August 2020. Since then, the firm has made 21 investments totaling $7.23 million, including six investments in the Twin Cities metro area, Brooks said.
Brown Venture Group's deal with the Bush Foundation took less than 60 days — a much shorter turnaround than other closings in the firm's inaugural fund, Brooks said.
"What we've been told by a lot of institutional investors is that this can take a really long time," Brooks said. "We've been in due diligence with several investors for over a year. Bush Foundation proved that it doesn't have to take that long."
The Oakland, Calif.-based East Bay Community Foundation and the Minneapolis-based Mortenson Family Foundation are two other institutional investors in the fund, and Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE: BBY) and Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) are two corporations that have invested in the fund so far.
The firm is currently "laser focused on closing Fund One," Brooks said.
"We've got a world of opportunity," Brooks said. "We just need to ensure that we are successful with our first fund raise so that we can capture all of the opportunity that's in front of us."
One opportunity the firm recently found is partnerships with three tribal governments across the country.
"We've set ambitious goals," Brooks said. "We now just need ambitious partners to come in and help us achieve our goals."
