How majority Black VC firm MaC Venture Capital raised a $110 million fund: A founding managing partner outlines the firm’s journey
- MaC Venture Capital has raised a $110 million fund, making it among the largest initial capital raises for a majority Black-owned firm.
- Managing partner Marlon Nichols says this funding will help support more underrepresented founders and entrepreneurs.
- This article originally appeared on The Plug, a news and information platform examining the Black innovation economy.
MaC Venture Capital has raised $110 million, becoming one of the largest rst-time fundraisers by a majority Black-owned venture rm.
Based on planned investments, the raise is expected to mint about 40 $1 million venture-backed companies. With 76% of its portfolio of companies having Black, Latinx, or women founders, MaC Venture Capital could shift the landscape of venture funding to underrepresented founders.
“We can power companies that can close the gap of opportunity for large groups of people, creating more diversied access across a wide range of verticals,” said Marlon Nichols, the founding managing partner of MaC Venture Capital. “By expanding to a total universe of BIPOC and gender-agnostic entrepreneurs, we’re convinced we’ll see the best talent out there.”
MaC has calibrated tools to gauge the global pop-culture shifts to peek around corners for future solutions. With foresight baked into the formula of how MaC seeks out founders, companies with predictive tools oat to the top.
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“Entrepreneurs are realizing they have choices now. Founders talk — the more we do and the better we treat diverse founders, the more they come in,” Nichols said.
A steady stream of diverse founders with the propensity for exits has contributed to MaC being among the rst majority Black-led rms to raise such a large rst fund. Nichols pointed to syndicate fund allocators and the role they play in how much capital Black LPs can deploy.
“The root of the problem of Black entrepreneurs not getting funded equitably is at the fund-allocator level. The percent of Black founders that receive venture nancing mirrors the percent of Black decision-makers in venture capital — not a coincidence,” Nichols said. “To solve this issue, more Black venture capital fund managers have to start receiving funding at similar levels to our white counterparts.”
There are a handful of majority Black-owned rms that preceded Nichols’ MaC Ventures to raise over $110 million on their rst capital raise. In 2000, Willie Woods’ ICV Partners raised $132 million; Troy Dixon’s hedge fund, Hollis Park Partners, which was founded in 2013, had a rst fund of $175 million; Stellex, headed up by Raymond Whiteman, raised $870 million on the rst fund in 2017. Sengal Selassie’s Brightwood Capital, founded in 2011, came close with a $75 million initial fund.
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