JPMorgan Chase Announces $1 Million Investment to Support Women Entrepreneurs of Color in Tech

Giving Compass’ Take:

• My Social Good News spreads the word about JPMorgan Chase’s big investment in women tech entrepreneurs of color to the tune of $1 million: This will help incubate 40 startups, identify gaps in venture capital and launch an education initiative.

• This money should inspire other donors to ask themselves: What can we do to support minority women in tech? This is an underserved talent pipeline.

• There are other ways to narrow the gender gap in philanthropy. Here’s another article that could serve as a guide.

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JPMorgan Chase today announced a $1 million investment to help Black and Hispanic women-led startups thrive. This innovative, data-driven investment to build and grow underserved entrepreneurs is part of the firm’s $150 million Small Business Forward initiative to provide flexible financing and other support to underserved women, minority and veteran-owned small businesses and applying what the firm has learned from small business investments in other communities.

Women of color are the fastest growing segment of entrepreneurs in the U.S., with more than 1.5 million businesses (a 322 percent increase since 1997), yet they receive less than one percent of all venture investment. They are also far less likely to have the wealth, financial safety net, or friends and family network other entrepreneurs rely on to launch and grow their businesses. [#ProjectDiane]

Half of the investment, or $500,000, will support two projects within DIDTechnology Inc. (“digitalundivided”), a social enterprise founded in 2013 to support Black and Hispanic women in innovation-focused entrepreneurship:

• Incubating an additional 40 startups founded by women of color for a 26-week cohort based on lean startup methodology. As part of the incubation program, digitalundivided will provide mentorship, business planning, marketing and communications strategy, and will teach these startups how to test, iterate and scale their businesses to be successful.
• Identifying gaps in venture capital by financing the second version of #ProjectDiane, digitalundivided’s proprietary research study about the state of Black women in tech entrepreneurship in the United States. The new report, to be released later in 2018, will expand the research to include Latina startup founders.

The other half of the investment, $500,000, will be used to launch the iNTENT Manifesto, an educational and investment platform based on good design, intent and investment to drive meaningful amounts of capital to women of color tech startups.

Read the source article about JP Morgan Chase’s investment in women tech entrepreneurs of color at My Social Good News.