New Hallo Report Finds Just 40 Black Founders Raised Venture Capital in Q4 2020

Diversity recruiting platform Hallo has published the findings from their latest research report —Black Founder Funding Q4 2020. 

This is Hallo’s second quarterly report in their Black Founder Funding series which aims to track the funding raised by startups led by Black founders. 

Last year, as nationwide protests against racial injustice began, many venture capital firms acknowledged the problem — less than 1% of founders who receive venture funding are Black, despite making up over 13% of the U.S. population. Many outlined initiatives and action plans aimed at tackling this problem.

This new report analyzed 1,537 companies that raised a round of capital between Oct. 1, 2020, and Dec. 31, 2020, with a total funding amount between $1,000,000 and $50,000,000. 

Hallo’s research found that out of the 1,537 companies analyzed, 40 were led by Black founders. The companies combined raised $12,368,156,928 with $260,844,766 being invested in Black founder-led startups. 

“For those VC’s who simply posted their “we stand in solidarity” message across social media back in June, yet haven’t taken any meaningful action to back Black founders, you should be ashamed of yourselves,” Hallo CEO Vern Howard said. “The Black founder community doesn’t need VCs to just say they stand in solidarity. What we need is for you to stop talking, start listening, and start investing and supporting Black founders. That’s the only thing that will truly move the needle in creating equal funding opportunities.” 

Hallo plans to continue publishing these reports every quarter. Howard said: “Our objective here is to keep a pulse on progress being made so we can ensure that all the awareness and momentum that was built last year doesn’t slowly fade away.” 

To access the report’s findings, visit here.