Valor Ventures: Valor, which is headquartered in Atlanta, makes seed-lead stage investments in B2B software startups across the South, primarily in enterprises led by women and people of color. The South is the region least served by local venture capital, and Valor’s founder, Lisa Calhoun, saw an opportunity to change that by creating infrastructure to bring together investors and entrepreneurs. From Valor’s point of view, diversity and inclusion are not a nice-to-have – rather, this lens serves as a corrective to entrenched biases in finance, enabling them to see the full spectrum of high-potential founders and market opportunities.
Trident: Trident is a multistage venture capital firm that invests in small businesses in untapped sectors that attract only 0.6% of private equity capital. While Trident invests nationally, it focuses on overlooked communities and individuals, including multiple investments in the U.S. South. It works with a network of Independent Sponsors and Operating Sponsors (ISOPS) to find opportunities, and supports portfolio companies in various ways, including diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices to amplify value creation. This approach has led to both strong growth and more employees in Black communities.
Apis & Heritage Capital Partners (A&H): A&H is a private equity firm that aims to close the racial wealth gap via increasing employee ownership of businesses. A major component of the racial wealth gap is the retirement gap: 60% of Black and Latinx people have $0 in retirement accounts. A&H targets companies with large workforces of color and helps them transition to employee ownership via multiple approaches. Part of its approach is to work with employees to build buy-in and a sense of shared ownership, which it believes leads to strong culture, satisfaction and performance: 0.2% of employee-owned businesses default on loans.
