Venture pledge fund investing in Black first-time founders
Are you, or someone you know, a black first-time founder looking for funding?
We’re looking for you too.
is a Seed to Series A pledge fund with a focus on supporting founding teams which include a Black first-time founder in the CPG, Food and Tech driven Sports & Entertainment space. Our goal is to fund the teams that are building the defensible businesses of the future. By leveraging our experience and network, we will give our portfolio companies an unfair advantage.
Our Mission
At Small Axe our goal is to help Black founders grow and succeed. Diversity of thought has the power to make the world a better place and we invest our time and resources into entrepreneurs that are making an impact. In addition to funding, Small Axe will focus on building an ecosystem of entrepreneurs through a coaching and education platform.
Why Black first-time founders?
Investors are unequivocally missing out on tremendous opportunity by not funding Black founders. Only 1% of VC dollars have gone to Black founders (227 venture-backed Black companies - while more than 9,000 companies were funded in 2018).
Black Founders solve different problems and have different solutions. When a founder is pitching a VC, the typical approach is to evaluate a company and gain a frame of reference through all the other deals they’ve already seen. But for a VC that hasn’t seen many Black founders, and this typical framework hasn’t yielded diverse investments. This is known as pattern matching. When you don’t meet many Black founders, you’re likely not used to hearing about market opportunities you have no framework for.
What is a Pledge Fund?
A pledge fund is an investment vehicle in which backers contribute capital on a deal-by-deal basis. The investors reserve the right to opt out of specific investments.
Partners
Mandisa E. Turner
Mandisa E. Turner has 20 years of corporate, entrepreneurial and new venture experience all geared at one thing: turning untapped potential into real value. An innovator at heart, Mandisa is a seasoned executive focused on uncovering new and sometimes unconventional paths to growth. Currently, Mandisa is an Entrepreneur in Residence at Bionic where she coaches intrapreneurial teams for corporate partners such as General Mills and Proctor & Gamble.
Prior to Bionic, Mandisa was Head of Innovation for Wakefern Food Corp, parent company of Shop Rite grocery stores. She has served as a strategy and business development consultant to a number of startups at various stages of growth and was the Founder of Bownce, a social networking platform for athletic recruiting. Mandisa is also an Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship and Leadership at St. John’s University where she serves on the Board of Directors of the Tobin School of Business and is a member of The George Washington University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Advisory Board.
Greg Brody
Greg D. Brody has established himself working in the Enterprise, Startup and Venture space over the last 30 years. He was the Vice-President of Corporate Development for Hallmark Entertainment. He then served as President of Commercekey.com, an early store builder platform providing e-commerce services. After that Greg was a Managing Partner of Halo Ventures leading to a role as the Chief Operating Officer of ASmallWorld and Jewelry.com. Greg continues to manage a portfolio of investments as well as advising family offices on Venture investing. Currently Greg is a Venture Partner at Bionic Solutions and sits on Growth Boards at AB InBev and General Mills. His past Growth Board experience includes Kraft Heinz, Exelon and Microsoft.
