Valence Announces Funding Network to Connect Black Founders
Ben Bergman is the newsroom's senior reporter, covering venture capital. Previously he was a senior business reporter and host at KPCC, a senior producer at Gimlet Media, a producer at NPR's Morning Edition, and produced two investigative documentaries for KCET. He has been a frequent on-air contributor to business coverage on NPR and Marketplace and has written for The New York Times and Columbia Journalism Review. Ben was a 2017-2018 Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Economic and Business Journalism at Columbia Business School. In his free time, he enjoys skiing, playing poker, and cheering on The Seattle Seahawks. Follow him on Twitter.
Valence, a tech platform and professional network launched last year that connects Black founders, announced its inaugural funding network Thursday. The list includes investors at top firms including Sequoia Capital, Accel and Upfront Ventures.
"For years, Black entrepreneurs have been told that Silicon Valley is a meritocracy, but at the same time most haven't had access to the top networks, the warm introductions, and the mentorship that underpin lasting success in tech. Valence is upending this completely by bringing the top VCs to compete for the best Black entrepreneurs." said Valence co-founder and general partner at Upfront Ventures, Kobie Fuller. "We want to even the playing field with the goal of exponentially growing the number of Black-owned startups that get funded."
Only 4% of VC employees are black, according to a 2018 survey by the National Venture Capital Association, an industry trade group. Just 10% of VC-backed companies in Los Angeles are run by a person of color or a woman, according to PledgeLA.
However, the true numbers are likely much lower because those survey – like all others examining diversity — are self-reported.
Valence also announced that is has appointed tech and entertainment veteran Guy Primus as chief executive officer.
"Facilitating success in the innovation economy is key to Valence's mission. By creating the Valence Funding Network, we are eliminating one of the most formidable structural obstacles to success—the access to venture investors." said Primus.
Here are the inaugural funding members:
- 645 Ventures
- Nnamdi Okike
- Accel
- Rich Wong
- Base10
- Ade Ajao
- Bessemer
- Elliott Robinson
- Capital G
- Gene Frantz
- Collab Capital
- Jewel Burks
- Concrete Rose
- Sean Mendy
- Defy Partners
- Nabeel Hyatt
- Techsquare Labs
- Upfront
- Neil Sequiera
- Equal Ventures
- Richard Kerby
- First Round
- Josh Kopelman
- Forerunner
- Brian O'Malley
- Foundry
- Brad Feld
- General Catalyst
- Peter Boyce
- GGV
- Hans Tung
- Greylock
- Sarah Guo
- Jordan Fudge
- Spark Capital
- Rebecca Kaden
- High Alpha
- Scott Dorsey
- Lightspeed
- Mercedes Bent
- Lux
- Deena Shakir
- Outlander
- Paige Craig
- Precursor
- Charles Hudson
- Redpoint
- Annie Kadavy
- Sequoia
- Jess Lee
- Sinai Ventures
- Paul Judge
- Union Square
- Kobie Fuller
- valence - dot.LA ›
- Valence Funding Network Intends to Boost Black Startups - dot.LA ›
- Real Ways to Increase Diversity in the Workplace - dot.LA ›
- Navigating the Venture Capital World as a Black Person - dot.LA ›
- How Women Can Build Self-Confidence in a Virtual World - dot.LA ›
- Valence Gets $5.25M to Change How Black Professionals Meet - dot.LA ›
- Jordan Fudge Raised One of the Largest Funds in LA History - dot.LA ›
Subscribe to our newsletter to catch every headline.
The largest property technology or "proptech" venture firm Fifth Wall is joining the SPAC boom.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Comission this week, the firm said its creating a special acquisition company (SPAC) and intends to raise up to $287 million by selling 28.75 million shares at $10 a piece to seek out opportunities in real estate tech.
- Brendan Wallace, Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Fifth Wall - dot ... ›
- Fifth Wall Venture Firm Is Now a B Corporation - dot.LA ›
Electric vehicle charging station provider EVgo is going public, joining a wave of companies in the electric vehicle industry hoping to ride on Tesla's soaring stock growth over the last year.
The Los Angeles-based startup, which operates a nationwide fast-charging network for electric vehicles, announced Friday it's going public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company that will generate about $575 million in net proceeds.
The deal with the SPAC, Climate Change Crisis Real Impact I Acquisition Corp., values EVgo at $2.6 billion. Shares shot up more than 66% on the news.
In 2012, Evan Britton founded a website premised upon what the web arguably does best: help people obsess over celebrities.
Britton launched his first site in 1999 as a senior in college and has since made his living monetizing web clicks.
When he created Famous Birthdays as a sort of Wikipedia of celebrities nine years ago, Tiktok wasn't even born and Snap had barely launched. The term "influencers" had yet to seep into the mainstream. But as social media created a new form of celebrity, the site has morphed into a pillar of the teen-centric world of online personalities and creators.