Arlan Hamilton, founder of Backstage Capital raising $36 million to invest exclusively in black female founders

Business Insider | Backstage Capital, a venture-capital (VC) firm that backs underrepresented founders including people of color, women, and members of the LGBTQ community, revealed over the weekend it’s launching a new US$36 million fund that will invest exclusively in black female founders.

“They are calling it a ‘diversity fund.’ I’m calling it an IT’S ABOUT DAMN TIME fund,” the firm’s founder and managing partner Arlan Hamilton said in a tweet.

The new fund will award black female entrepreneurs US$1 million at a time, Hamilton announced at the United State of Women 2018 Summit in Los Angeles on Saturday. The goal is to bridge the funding divide between investors and black women in the male-dominated VC landscape.

In 2017, female founders received only 2.2 percent of the US$85 billion invested by venture capitalists, according to PitchBook data. The prospects are even worse for women of color: A study by First Round Capital suggested that in 2015, a mere 0.2 percent of all funding went to companies run by women of color.

For Hamilton, an early trip to Silicon Valley sparked the idea of starting a fund.

“I noticed it was the land of opportunity, but not for everyone,” Hamilton told TechCrunch’s Megan Rose Dickey in 2017. “It just dawned on me one day: If I can’t get these investors to take some of the founders seriously just because they don’t look like the last person they invested in, then maybe I should just try to put together some money and make those decisions myself.”

After spending years in the music industry, Hamilton relocated to Silicon Valley in 2015 to pursue her dream. She lived off her savings and slept on couches, in motels, and out of cars, while also pitching any investor or tech influencer who would listen. She received her first check from angel investor Susan Kimberlin later that year and got Backstage Capital started.

Based in West Hollywood, Backstage Capital plans to invest the new US$36 million fund into 15 to 20 companies over the next 3 years, with approximately half of the fund reserved for future financing. Hamilton told Business Insider the first 2 – 3 investments will come in 2018.

“Black women have had to make due with far less for centuries,” Hamilton said.
She added, “We cannot continue to be expected to accept scraps.”