Kim Lew, president and ceo of Columbia Investment Management Company, the investment management arm of Columbia University, is taking steps to add diversity to its $11.2 billion portfolio and investment processes.
Alternative investment managers Apollo Global Management, Ares Management Corporation and Oaktree Capital Management have announced a $90 million initiative for students attending three Historically Black Colleges and Universities to introduce them to the alternative investment industry.
A group of seed stage investors have announced the launch of Screendoor, a $50 million venture capital fund-of-funds focused on investing in seed stage and early-stage funds from underrepresented communities.
Investors increasingly seek out diversity among company founders, leading to more support for Black-led funds and growing appetite to back startups led by people from groups that venture capital has historically overlooked.
We have always and continue to want this incentive to succeed, but we continue to have trepidations about that. Those fears have only grown as we hear directly from people in communities who say the incentive is causing more harm than good.