- Black-led venture capital firm Base10 announced that it raised $250 million for its second fund
Base10 Partners managing partner Adeyemi Ajao recently revealed that his San Francisco-based venture capital firm has raised $250 million to invest in startups and to back initiatives that were designed for diversifying the industry. With $400 million in assets under management, Base10 is one of the largest black-led venture capital firms.
This second fund is about twice the size of the previous fund. Plus Base10 is planning to donate 1% of management fees and 1% of the firm’s future profits to organizations that are focused on increasing racial justice. And Ajao is encouraging others to set up similar programs. If the venture capital industry does this as a whole, then it could contribute over $200 million.
“If there’s ever a time to step forward, it’s now,” said Ajao via Bloomberg. “For years, we’ve been hoping to prove that investing in diversity was good business, and we thought that would be our contribution, but it has become clear in recent weeks that that is not enough.”
Black people make up over 13% of the U.S. population. However, they represent 3% of investment partners at venture capital firms according to a survey published by the National Venture Capital Association. And black founders represent only 0.4% of people who receive venture capital investment between 1990 and 2016, says a study published by Harvard University.
Base10 is writing checks of about $500,000 to $5 million. And it is aiming at investing in entrepreneurs in a wide range of industries.
Ajao previously founded a company from his college dorm room called Tuenti (acquired by Telefonica for $100 million in 2010). And since then Ajao was a co-founder of Identified (acquired by Workday) and launched Workday Ventures while working at Workday. Plus he is also on the founding team of Cabify — which raised over $470 million in venture capital so far.
And Base10 managing partner TJ Nahigian sharpened his experience in investing at firms like Summit Partners, Accel Partners, and Coatue Management. And Nahigian launched a company called Jobr (acquired by Monster).
Base10’s team also includes principal Rexhep Dollak, principal Chris Zeoli, head of investment content Sarah Ramos, head of operations and finance Andrew Lebovitz, and advisor of quantitative research strategy Angelica Willis.
