“Fortune,” sat down with Melissa Bradley, managing partner of 1863 Ventures, to talk about the funding divide between black and white entrepreneurs.
The evidence isn’t encouraging. According to Crunchbase data, just approximately 1.3 percent of US venture capital money went to Black-founded startups in 2021. Despite the fact that Black entrepreneurs raised $4.2 billion in venture capital last year, a 281 percent increase over the previous year, they still receive a fraction of the money accessible to their white counterparts. They aren’t alone; there are significant disparities in Latino and women-owned firms as well, but each group has unique problems.