🎢 Diving Deep into Diversity in LATAM & Beyond – May 2022

May 31, 2022

Harlem Capital’s monthly recap on our portfolio companies, industry news & more. Buckle up! 🏎️💨

It’s been a busy month at Harlem Capital, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t acknowledge the slew of tragic mass shootings in the U.S. The Harlem Capital team mourns the 21 lives lost in the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. There have been 213 mass shootings in the United States in 2022 alone, and our hearts ache for the innocent lives lost and their grieving communities.

Monthly Update 📅

Who are the LATAM Women founders that raised $4B in 2021?

Harlem Capital’s inaugural Latin American Women Founders report analyzes the 128 women-founded startups that raised VC funding in 2021. This report was a labor of love by HCP Principal Gabby Cazeau and intern Zhenny Gong. Our deep dive got picked up by Bloomberg, This Week in Fintech, and Amela!

💡Key takeaways:

820 LATAM companies raised $17.2B in VC funding. But that funding was not equal across teams. Teams with all men founders raised 3x MORE than mixed-gender teams. Teams with all men founders raised 345x MORE than their all women counterparts
Founding team composition: 82% all men, 12% mixed gender, and 4% all women. Looking at the median fundraise amount, mixed-gender teams raised 12% MORE than all men teams. All women teams raised 67% LESS than all men teams
Despite the fundraising stats, the overwhelming sentiment from the founders was optimistic: “There has never been a better time to be a woman founder in Latin America"

Harlem Capital is at the very start of our investment journey in LATAM. It's clear there is a huge capital gap for all women-founded startups in the region and we’re excited to have an impact as we back more incredible Latin American founders.

➡️ If you’re interested in pitching our team, share your company with us at harlem.capital/pitch

Portfolio News 🗞️

😊 We’re excited to announce our investment in Primitives' $4M seed round led by Redpoint Ventures. Founder & CEO David Gabeau is building at the fascinating intersection of social, identity & NFTs.

💧 We are excited to double down on DripShop as they announce their $23M Series A led by Base10 Partners with participation from Eniac Ventures and Kindred Ventures. Drip is the Shopify for livestream commerce, providing users tools to run livestream auctions, drops or buy-it-now formats. Congratulations to co-founders Javaughn Lawrence and Sameep Sheth!

🖱️ Harlem Capital led Because Intelligence's $3M Seed round. Founder & CEO Ashland Stansbury is creating high-volume ecommerce sites to make updates with no-code on auto-pilot. We continue to believe ecommerce enablement tools will be critical for the consumer market as they enhance the brand and customer experiences.

Interested in working at one of the startups in our portfolio? 💼

Want a career at a Harlem Capital portfolio company? Search job openings across the Harlem Capital network here or submit your info for a chance to work at your dream job at an HCP portfolio company!

Harlem Capital News 🚀

🚨Our fall intern application is open until June 28

If you’re interested in early-stage VC and changing the face of entrepreneurship, be sure to apply here and share with others. Anyone who’s a rising college junior or older can apply; it’s part-time and remote.

Read more about the internship directly from a previous intern: A Day in the Life as a Harlem Capital Intern.

🌐 Web3: A Primer

As you know by now, Harlem Capital is focused on investing in the following areas of Web3:

Tools and Infrastructure for NFTs and tokens
Creator Economy
Consumer Social
B2B Infrastructure
Finance (DeFi)
On and off-ramps between Web2 and Web3
DAOs

We are bullish on Web3, and believe it's a pivotal moment to share a primer for the crypto curious. Jarrid and HCP fellow Sharlene Guiriba worked on this robust report for anyone interested in getting a better lay of the land.

Web3 creates new opportunities for ownership, collaboration, wealth generation, and immutable proof of ownership & transactions. ⚡There are various headwinds & tailwinds that are affecting the macro Web3 environment. Overall, Harlem Capital views more tailwinds that enhance opportunities and Web3’s global growth.

Some of the brightest & boldest entrepreneurs & tech talent are flocking to Web3, building out companies that are indelibly changing the future.

📽️ Creators – New rewards system that's > Web2 because creators don't need third parties to reap the benefits of their success. Fans can get tokens to access exclusive content

🤝🏾 Communities - DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) enable community members to take ownership and control over how they want their organization to develop and thrive

🎮 Gaming - Users can play web3 games and accrue digital assets (crypto, tokens, etc.) which can then be converted to fiat currency

💸 Finance - Cross-border payments can use crypto to make P2P transactions faster and cheaper

Nicole DeTommaso at All Raise VC Summit

Nicole gave a master class on the power of brand building at the leading summit of female/non-binary VC investors.

A few tips:

Choose 2-3 topics to focus on
Post twice a day
Write 1-2 threads per week
Engage with others’ posts

Best advice: just get started!

Melody Hahm on the power of building inclusive communities

💫 We commemorated Asian Pacific American Heritage Month – we at Harlem Capital love celebrating the richness and complexity of everyone’s individual backgrounds! Melody spoke at the Community-Led Summit about how it’s impossible to build inclusive communities without an inclusive team.

Melody also spoke on an “AAPIs in VC” panel at UCLA Anderson, where she talked about breaking into VC, how she’s embraced her Korean heritage in professional contexts, and why a diversity lens is non-negotiable.

The More Equity podcast: LP season 🎙️

The More Equity Podcast is taking a road trip through Harlem Capital’s fundraising journey! Our LPs share their unique perspectives on why they decided to invest in HCP.

Managing Partners Henri Pierre-Jacques and Jarrid Tingle reflect with Limited Partners, including Harlem Capital’s very first LP and their former boss, Willie Woods — President & Co-Founder of ICV Partners, a black-owned private equity firm with $1.4 billion in AUM.

Binge the More Equity LP series on Spotify & Apple.

✨DMC's $1M milestone ✨

We're proud to announce that The Diversity Marketing Consortium has provided $1 million in pro bono services to diverse founders.

Since launching in July 2020, the DMC has been focused on a singular mission: to level the playing field in business by shining a light on underrepresented founders. In partnership with world-class agencies, that vision has come to life.

The DMC is now accepting applications for agencies who share in our mission to change the face of entrepreneurship. Ranging across growth marketing, Facebook and Google advertising, product launches, and executive profiling, we're looking to expand our services. We know this is just the beginning of the kind of impact we can make.