Partnerships + Community Engagement

THE PROBLEM:

Less than 2% of venture capital funding goes to Black founders nationally and Black founders are underrepresented in Connecticut’s entrepreneurship ecosystem.

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THE GOAL: 

• Position Yale as a premier destination for current and aspiring Black founders nationwide

• Strengthen CT's entrepreneurship ecosystem by attracting new venture capital and inspiring a new wave of entrepreneurship.

 

THE SOLUTION: 

• Host an annual Black Venture Summit in partnership with Startup Yale and CTNext to increase representation of Black founders & make direct investments into Black led groundbreaking companies.

 

THE RESULTS

• 330+ Attendee Registrations

• 2,500+ Social Engagements

• Event Partners included:

  • Opening Keynote from McKinsey Institute on Black Economic Mobility

  • Nationally acclaimed Black founders, venture capitalists, and experts from Google Cloud, Squire, Realist Labs, Visible Hands, and more.

  • Closing Keynote from Iddris Sandu, founder of Spatial Labs and advisor to companies such as Google, Meta and Snapchat

• $20K Prize Awarded to CT Startup – Webquity – which aims to make online education an equitable playing field by providing universal accessibility software to differently-abled users.