Best Buy made a commitment last summer to support communities of color in the wake George Floyd's murder. The retail giant announced today that it will invest up to $10 Million in Brown Venture Group as part of its mission to address technology inequalities and underrepresentation.Minnesota-based Brown Venture Group, a venture capital firm, is three years old and has committed to only supporting Black, Latino, and Indigenous technology startups. According to Crunchbase data, Black and Latino communities received 2.6% of all funding in 2020.According to the principals of Brown Venture Group, it is currently raising capital for its $50 million target fund. 75% has already been committed. The Minneapolis-based Best Buys could invest as high as $20 million, which would make it a leading LP in the fund.Dr. Paul Campbell, co-founder of Brown Venture Group and managing partner, said that multiple local people told him and Dr. Chris Brooks that all capital was located on the coasts in the early days.Campbell shared with TechCrunch that he and his team made a decision early on to remain in the Twin Cities. They also wanted it to be a Twin City story. When we considered our Twin Cities ecosystem, and the people we wanted to partner with, Best Buy came up top. We are thrilled to have Best Buy as our lead LP.Best Buy, which had $47 billion in revenues last year, stated that the move was designed to help break down systemic barriers faced by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), entrepreneurs, including lack of funding access and the empowerment of the next generation of tech professionals.Brown Venture Group was also added to the company's statement. This partnership will help make the technology startup landscape more inclusive, and create a stronger community with diverse suppliers.The announcement of Best Buy's support for the fund was made by the venture firm. Best Buy Teen Tech Centers announced that they will jointly launch an entrepreneurship program to assist young entrepreneurs with mentorship, education, and funding access.Brown Venture Group, whose name was chosen as an inclusive skin colour of the groups it represents, has invested in five companies so far, including Ecolution kwh, a clean energy startup.For a company with sales of $47billion last year, ten million dollars seems small. Best Buy stated that this is only one of many initiatives it has in place to support BIPOC companies. It also plans to provide $44million to expand college prep and career options for BIPOC students, and pledges to spend at most $1.2 billion with BIPOC-related businesses by 2025. It also stated that it will fill one of the three non-hourly corporate jobs with BIPOC employees by 2025 and hire 1,000 more employees to its technology department, with 30% of these employees being women, Latinx and Black.Corie Barry, CEO of Best Buy, stated in a written statement that she was committed to taking action to address the problems faced by BIPOC entrepreneurs. We believe that partnerships such as this can help us to create a more vibrant, stronger community of tech innovators. Some of these we hope will become Best Buy partners in the future.
