Changing the Faces of the Investment Landscape: InvestHER Atlanta

In Atlanta, Ga., the Nasdaq Foundation and digitalundivided held the third InvestHER Power Series, a sequence of events spanning the country that spotlight inspiring Black and Latina women founders and investors. Designed as a safe space for learning and empowerment, the event explored the benefits of investing in diverse founders, the powerful connections behind networking among entrepreneurs of color and advice from one Black founder who pivoted in the disruptions of the pandemic to more than double her company's valuation.

The State of Investing and Entrepreneurship

Brittany Hale, Interim CEO of digitalundivided, and Jailan Griffiths, Global Head of Purpose at Nasdaq and President of the Nasdaq Foundation, introduced the event, setting the stage on the current landscape of investment for founders and funders of color.

Griffiths cited research by the Aspen Institute and Commonwealth , which was supported by the Nasdaq Foundation, that revealed women of color are less likely to participate in the capital markets because they do not feel the markets are for them and do not see themselves as investors.

Meanwhile, digitalundivided’s Project Diane report, the first-ever biennial demographic study to provide a snapshot of the state of Latina and Black women founders, suggests founders of color also lack support in scaling their business through investment. 

“Despite having some of the lowest fail rates in the industry, these women are chronically under-resourced and chronically ignored,” said Hale.

Tackling the lack of investment and support of underrepresented founders and funders, the Nasdaq Foundation and digitalundivided set out to amplify the voices of those who have succeeded, to help others on their journeys to learn the mechanics of how valuations happen and the science behind building powerful portfolios.

Sharing Successful Founder/Funder Knowledge

This InvestHER event featured Shila Nieves Burney, General Partner of Zane Venture Fund, Juanita Velez, founder of Hispanic Young Professionals and Entrepreneurs (HYPE) and Farah Allen, CEO and founder of The Labz, a no-code website building platform that creates interactive communication-rich business-to-business (B2B) web and mobile metaverses.

While acknowledging the bleak landscape of investment and support for people of color on both the investment and entrepreneurial side, panelists also described a landscape ripe with opportunity with the right strategy and guidance. 

Burney began the discussion, highlighting that after a push for VC investment in Black entrepreneurs in the wake of George Floyd’s death, that investment fell 45% in 2022. 

Burney’s journey into venture capital started before this short uptick in investment, when Black entrepreneurs were only receiving 2% of VC funding, and Black women only receiving 1%, according to Crunchbase. She saw the untapped potential in investing in diverse founders and teams, that there were billions in the market, but brilliant entrepreneurs who were getting no capital. 

“I knew there were incredible founders that were building companies that were scalable and venture-backable but I also saw the research that said they were not getting funded. I thought to myself, ‘How can I change this?’” said Burney. 

Over four years, she has taken this problem head on, raising money with Zane Venture Fund and investing in eight black-owned companies that are local to Atlanta.

Velez saw the importance of supporting entrepreneurs of color through community, creating a space to aid collective success.

“It was really important for me to bring together my community and provide examples of people who looked like us, so that we could take that risk. It’s not always about playing it safe,” said Velez, who founded HYPE to provide these role models and community, to inspire new founders of color to take the leap and start their business.

Meanwhile, Allen noted that founders of color need to be ready to pivot, to be adaptable, creating opportunities in new situations. Her company, The Labz, leveraged the pandemic to grasp new interest by big companies in online marketing. With people spending more time online, she asked herself, “How do we make money in these new ways that companies want to attract their customers? How do we have interactive experiences that can actually make money for brands?”

Evolving her business beyond an event platform, she attracted big brands like Delta, UPS, Google and Microsoft, leading The Labz to more than double its valuation in 2023 from $4 million to over $10 million.

5 Tips for New Founders/Funders

Together, these three industry professionals shared five pieces of advice from their journeys for new founders and funders:

• Find a mentor to guide you through your investor or founder journey.
• Seek out investors who have a history of investing in founders of color, they are more likely to invest in you.
• Strategize what kind of funding is right for you.
• Know your worth, don’t give up too much of your company for too little capital.
• In current economic conditions, be prepared to defend everything you are doing to scale your business.

Changing the Investor Identity Landscape

This partnership with digitalundivided is part of the Nasdaq Foundation’s larger push to change the landscape of investor identity, to help women of color specifically see the markets as a place for them and growing their participation by:

• Amplifying Role Models
• Teaching Financial Literacy
• Engaging in Community-based Research

The Atlanta InvestHER Power Series is just one event of many that will spotlight select investors, founders and funders of color from across the country to bring attention to and uplift new founders and funders at a grassroots level, adding to the growing community of underrepresented entrepreneurs and investors.

“Now more than ever is the time to invest in new ways of thinking and new ways to support women as investors and as entrepreneurs,” said Griffiths. “How can we, together, build a truly equitable and inclusive ecosystem? It starts in rooms like this.”

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