Carla Harris (Photo courtesy of Morgan Stanley)
Big American venture capital firms are transitioning from apathy to awareness to action when investing with companies owned by women and multicultural entrepreneurs, a fresh survey by investment banking powerhouse Morgan Stanley reveals.
That crystalized analogy comes from Carla Harris, vice chairman and co-head of the Multicultural Client Strategy Group at Morgan Stanley. She talked with BLACK ENTERPRISE about her firm’s second annual VC survey. Expressing her optimism with the report, Harris cited how attitudes and actions among 76 U.S.-based venture capital (VC) firms have changed in the last year. She says VCs today have greater willingness to invest with black and other diverse firms, enterprises that have for years and continue to struggle to gain such funding. She acknowledges those firms need capital to grow and boost their market value.
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Morgan Stanley Multicultural Innovation Lab (MSMIL), an accelerator that helps startups led by women and people of color gain funding, has been named the first participant in the NJ Accelerate.
The New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA), which launched the NJ Accelerate, announced the partnership, one of the first times that a state has teamed up with a major financial company on such a program.
The accord comes as the MSMIL will expand its program starting in winter 2021 to typically invest $250,000 in such a startup, an increase from $200,000 in prior cohort companies. The new initiative is needful capital-wise. Black founders receive less than 1% of venture capital funds annually, and Black women founders account for less than that, the