According to Tech Crunch, the amount of capital raised by Black founders continues to decrease. The platform notes that black founders raised $187 million in venture capital in the third quarter, out of the total $43 billion deployed in the three months that ended in September.
According to Tech Crunch, the amount represents a staggering decline from the nearly $1.1 billion they received in Q3 2021 and a sizable drop from the $594 million the cohort raised in Q2.
Within that figure, Crunchbase notes that Black women reportedly raised 49% of all the capital allocated to Black founders in Q3, pacing the number at around $91.63 million. The data above highlights how challenging it is for Black entrepreneurs to raise venture funding.
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However, in the face of this challenge, one Black tech entrepreneur has defied all odds to raise $35 million in venture funding. Sevetri Wilson founded the software startup, Resilia, selling software that helps nonprofit organizations manage their operations. She noted that her ultimate goal is to “modernize philanthropy for nonprofits and funders.”
“Solo founders do go on to be grossly successful, and you can look at that across the board,” Wilson, 35, told Forbes. “But for some reason, a Black woman solo founder can’t be successful? Make it make sense to me.”
The funding round was co-led by Panoramic Ventures and Framework Venture Partners and included participation from Mucker Capital, SoftBank Group’s SB Opportunity Fund, Goldman Sachs Asset Management Fund, and Chloe Capital.
Prior to starting Resilia, Wilson was managing a consulting service for nonprofits for eight years and started the software company to “productize and scale” some of those services with technology, according to Forbes.
Wilson had no coding experience as well as experience in starting a business when she started Resilia. As per Forbes, she was introduced to a software engineer who helped “wireframe” her vision and suggest another engineering talent she could hire.
To get Resilia running, she raised about $400,000 in pre-seed money mainly within Louisiana, but the “process got tougher when she had to look out of state for her seed round. She ultimately landed Mucker Capital—which prides itself on investing outside of Silicon Valley—as the largest investor in that roughly $2 million seed round,” according to Forbes.
Wilson grew up near Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She and her three siblings were raised by a single mother who was an assistant manager at K-Mart. Thanks to a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation scholarship, she was able to attend Louisiana State University.
