Portland Development Commission Chooses Diversity-centric Firm to Run New Inclusive Startup Fund

Fund aims to raise a total of $3 million in 2016 to fund companies led by women and minorities.

Through its Startup PDX Challenge, the Portland Development Commission has made a point of dedicating government dollars to businesses run by minorities and underrepresented groups.

The PDC has now enshrined that mission in a new investment capital fund and chosen Portland's Elevate Capital—itself run by a diverse team—to manage it.

Launched late last year, the Inclusive Startup Fund has obtained $500,000 each from PDC and Multnomah County, in addition to $250,000 from Oregon Governor Kate Brown and Business Oregon. Within the coming year, Elevate will work to generate an additional $1.75 million in private funds.

"One of the key gaps nationally and certainly here in Portland is who's participating in our startup community," says Chris Harder, economic development manager at PDC. "Long story short: It's predominately white and it's predominately male."

Elevate "articulated and expressed a great commitment toward the focus of this fund being on underrepresented founders," Harder adds, noting that Elevate was among six firms that applied to manage the fund.

Unlike many fund management and venture capital firms run primarily by white men, Elevate boasts a more diverse team.

Robin Jones recently joined Elevate as venture advisor; she previously headed west-coast venture investments for Motorola Ventures. Stephen Green, a former business development officer for the PDC, worked as vice president at Albina Community Bank before joining Elevate as community director, and serves on the board at Black United Fund of Oregon.

Elevate Managing Director is Nitin Rai, a well-known fixture in the tech startup community who has helped foster three startups led by women and minorities: Geoloqi, GlobeSherpa and Zapproved.

"We have the potential to create Oregon's first African-American fund manager focused on early stage startups," said Rai, alluding to Green. "It adds a very unique flavor to this fund."

Elevate aims to make 30 investments over the next five years, says Rai, noting, "We've already got a pipeline of minority co-founders that we're evaluating."

Venture capital in Pacific Northwest-based startups hit a record $2.4 billion in 2015, according to data released yesterday by financial information software firm PitchBook, which publishes VC funding research.

In addition to requiring that at least one co-founder is a woman, African-American, Latino, or a member of another underrepresented community, Inclusive Startup Fund will be reserved for businesses poised to scale.

"It's got to be a high growth business," says Rai. "It's not gonna be a food cart."

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