Capital Midwest Fund (CMF), a Milwaukee-based venture capital firm, announced today its commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).
CMF will proactively invest in female founders and racially diverse founders, and plans to focus on the equity component that is often overlooked in DEI strategies. As part of the initiative, CMF is developing a framework to both guide the process and measure its impact. CMF will also work with its portfolio companies to develop DEI initiatives at the company level as well.
CMF’s commitment to DEI is further reinforced by CMF itself being minority-led. Two of the three partners of CMF’s recently announced fourth fund, Alvin Vitangcol and Michael Harper, are minorities.
“We have unintentionally done a reasonable job with DEI historically, at least compared to the industry benchmarks, but a more intentional DEI strategy will provide more opportunities for female and minority founders, while we maintain our core investment criteria, which has led to success in past investments,” said CMF Partner Alvin Vitangcol.
Historically, CMF, across its first three funds, has 13% of its investments in female-founded/female-led companies, and 24% of its investments in minority-founded/minority-led companies. This compares with U.S. startup benchmarking, based on 2018-2019 data provided by Diversity VC in its “Diversity in U.S. Startups” report, of 11% female-founded/female-led companies and 28% minority-founded/minority-founded companies.
“We believe our reinvigorated commitment to female and minority providers will help further break down barriers that prevent diverse-led companies from raising capital,” said CMF Partner Michael Harper. “We also plan to serve as an advocate to our fellow venture capital investors.”
About Capital Midwest Fund
Capital Midwest Fund is a venture capital firm investing in revenue-stage companies that provide customer-centric, problem-solving, business-to-business technology solutions, including software, services, and products. CMF focuses on companies where management: (1) has a fundamental understanding of trending technology themes; (2) has applied that understanding in a practical way to solve specific customer problems; and (3) has shown traction in garnering market acceptance.
CMF recently announced the initial closing of its fourth fund, Capital Midwest Fund IV, L.P. (CMF IV), effective as of November 5, 2021. To date, CMF IV has received capital commitments in excess of $41 million. CMF IV is targeting $100 million of aggregate capital commitments.
Source : https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/capital-midwest-fund-announces-initiative-for-diversity-equity-and-inclusion-dei-301471063.html
