📢 HCP Newsletter: Driving Our Mission Forward 🚀– July 2021📢
This newsletter is Harlem Capital’s monthly recap of updates on our portfolio companies, industry news, content, and events we suggest to check out and more!
Now, buckle up! 🏎️💨 LIVE FROM EVERYWHERE, it’s Road to 1,000 – July 2021 🥰
Monthly Update 📅
💰💪🏽 Harlem Capital’s 1H21 U.S. Diverse Fundraising Insights Report💪🏽💰
Introducing Harlem Capital’s 1H21 U.S. Diverse Fundraising Insights Report, which tracks the number and volume of capital raised by diverse founders across funding stages. We utilized Crunchbase’s new Diversity Spotlight data as the source for our insights. Review the full presentation here. 📈📈
Key Findings:
💡1H21 saw 900 diverse fundraises totaling $18B of capital raised.
💡Black and Latino founders made up 23% of the number of 1H21 diverse deals, and 24% of deal volume.
💡 Women founders made up 77% of the number of 1H21 diverse deals, and 80% of deal volume.
Check out more insights in our Twitter thread here:
Portfolio News 🗞️
🤩Pangaea Raises $68M Series B 🤩
Congratulations to our portfolio company Pangaea on raising a $68M Series B! It’s been incredible to see the growth of the business since we first invested at the Seed round.
🐶Wagmo Raises $12.5M Series A 😺
Congratulations to Christie Horvath, Ali Foxworth and the Wagmo team on their $12.5M Series A round led by Revolution Ventures. We’re excited to see you continue helping more pet parents keep their pets healthy affordably.
💰Repeat Raises $6M Series A💰
We’re excited to continue supporting Kim Stiefel, Sarah Wissel and the Repeat team on their latest $6M Series A round led by Battery Ventures. CPG brands — be sure to check out the product! If you want to learn more about how Repeat is building company culture from the ground up and tripled the team in a year, read their recent feature in Crunchbase News.
💸Singuli Raises $3.7M Seed 💸
Congrats to Benjamin Kelly, Thierry Bertin-Mahieux and the Singuli team on their $3.7M Seed round. We are excited to be on their journey of empowering retailers to make optimal inventory decisions through Singuli’s AI-powered platform.
📢Feature Alert: Stuf Interviewed on Yahoo Finance 📢
In the interview, Stuf Co-Founder and CEO Katharine Lau shares the Stuf story, plans for expansion, and how the startup is poised to disrupt the storage industry. Watch the video here.
🔥Workchew Named One of 50 Honorees for DC Inno’s Fire Awards of 2021 🔥
Workchew was named to DC Inno’s Fire Awards of 2021! The list of 50 honorees highlights Washington area companies, investors and players who are setting its startup ecosystem ablaze. 👏🏽
Interested in working at one of the Startups in our portfolio? 💻👇
Search job openings across the Harlem Capital network here!
Harlem Capital Related 🚀
👏🏽 Harlem Capital Welcomes Tonna Obaze and Melody Hahm to the Team 👏🏽
We couldn’t be more excited to announce HCP’s two new hires: Melody Hahm, our Platform & Community Manager, and Tonna Obaze, the firm’s Chief of Staff & Investor. To learn more about the addition of these two ambitious energizers, read our announcement here.
🌴Henri Pierre-Jacques Featured on the The #MiamiTech Pod 🌴
Harlem Capital Co-Founder Henri Pierre-Jacques discusses the journey to Harlem Capital, why he moved to Miami, and the state of VC in America. He also spills one of his biggest pet peeves and whether he’d ever buy a ticket to space. 🤔🚀Don’t miss the full interview here.
✍🏾 Gabby Cazeau Shares Fundraising Tips for Founders ✍🏾
In this HCP blog post, Principal Gabby Cazeau shares her top fundraising tips for founders.If you want to learn more about finding the right investor, check out Gabby’s interview with Elizabeth Davis, Investor at the Female Innovators Lab by Barclays and Anthemis.
🚀Henri Pierre-Jacques Interviewed for Crunchbase News 🚀
Harlem Capital Co-Founder Henri Pierre-Jacques was interviewed for Crunchbase News, shedding light on Crunchbase’s latest fundraising report on Black entrepreneurs. Henri discussed fundraising trends and the biggest factors driving positive change in the industry.
The More Equity podcast is the podcast that keeps on giving! 🎙️
Introducing our new Angel Investing Series 😇! We’ve dropped not one, but three new podcasts this month to kick off the series. 🚨 In these episodes, HCP Chief of Staff Tonna Obaze interviews Sevetri Wilson, CEO of Resilia; Meka Asonye, Partner at First Round Capital; and DeVaris Brown, Co-CEO of Meroxa. Must-listens before you write your first check!
📢Sevetri Wilson, CEO of Resilia: Sevetri discusses how starting a company at 22 led to angel investing and the importance of angel investors for diverse founders.
Episode with Tonna and Sevetri ➡️ Apple and Spotify
📢Meka Asonye, Partner at First Round Capital: Tune into hear more about Meka’s journey — from breaking into tech through non-traditional backgrounds to discovering his first angel investment.
Episode with Tonna and Meka ➡️ Apple and Spotify
📢DeVaris Brown, Co-CEO of Meroxa DeVaris shares his cheat codes for evaluating startups and how to navigate the founder and angel investor relationship from both sides.
Episode with Tonna and DeVaris ➡️ Apple and Spotify
Gems dropped 💎💎💎
Sevetri Wilson: Angels have been some of the most helpful investors, even though they are usually a smaller check.
Meka Asonye: The best players can often be the worst coaches and the worst players can often be the best coaches. The same is true for operators to investors.
DeVaris Brown: Figure out your superpower as an angel, it's not going to be the same for every company.
Top Diversity & Tech News 👀💸
Deals are on fire this year and continued heating up this month! 🔥🔥
💸💸Dana Guthrie Closes Milwaukee VC Fund After Raising $12.5 Million
💰💰Zeal Capital Partners Close $62.1M Oversubscribed Fund
🚀🚀Peter Boyce II Has Left General Catalyst To Start His Own $40M Fund
👯👯Anu Duggal Of Female Founders Fund Raises $57M Third Fund
🚨🚨Esusu Raises $10 Million Series A Funding Led By Motley Fool Ventures
🌟🌟Popshop Live Raises About $20M at a $100M Valuation
💄💄Glossier Raises $80 Million Series E, Valuing Company at $1.8 Billion
☄️☄️SmartAsset Raises $110 Million Series D, Bringing Valuation to Over $1 Billion
⚡⚡Miami Startup Lula Raises $18M Series A Led By Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures
🔥🔥Habi Raises $100 Million Series B Led by SoftBank, Expanding into Mexico
💥💥Tiger Global Leads $42M Series B in Nigerian Credit-led Neobank FairMoney
💯💯Ken Frazier, the Former Merck Chief, Is Heading to General Catalyst
Mark Your Calendars – Save These Dates! 📅
⚡First Round's Fast Track Mentorship Program
First Round’s Fast Track Mentorship program is a 6-week program that pairs startup employees looking to learn and level up in their careers, either as individual contributors or as team leaders. Each pair participates in six 1:1 sessions, to discuss the Mentee’s professional goals, tips for cultivating leadership skills and advice for weathering the challenges of startup life. Apply by August 1st!
HBCUvc is now accepting applicants for its fifth class of fellows. The Fellowship program consists of two parts — the first half will emphasize exposure and education and the second half of the program will feature an optional hands-on practicum, applying the concepts and principles learned in the preceding semester through its $1 Million Dollar Lab Fund. 💰Register for the information session on August 5th and be sure to apply by August 23rd!
💸 Amazon's Black Business Accelerator in Partnership with Hello Alice
As part of its Black Business Accelerator program, Amazon has partnered with Hello Alice to offer an initial round of cash grants, along with access to business resources, technical training, and mentorship to help build sustainable equity and growth for Black entrepreneurs. Applications close July 29th.
Helpful Resources 💯 & Other Suggested Content 💡
All Raise Launches Virtual Bootcamp For Women and Nonbinary Founders⚒️⚒️
With that said, stay cool 😎 and we’ll see you in September as we are taking a break in August! 🐣🐣