segment at Wells Fargo, Angela Dingle, president and CEO of Women Impacting Public Policy, Elise Smith, cofounder and CEO of Praxis Labs, and Tracy Gray, managing partner at The 22 Fund.Despite demonstrating faster growth than their peers, Black-led middle-market firms face persistent systemic barriers that hinder achieving their full potential.
Earning significantly less than white men and even white women, Black women struggle to accumulate capital to launch and sustain businesses. This lack of capital, combined with less accumulated wealth, makes them more likely to be undercapitalized, limiting growth potential and increasing the risk of failure.
However, systemic barriers like category management and contract bundling limit the pool of vendors able to compete for these contracts. Many Black-owned firms may need more insight and relationships to be aware of these opportunities. These contracts are often multi-year, and missing the initial window can mean waiting several years for another chance.
With lawsuits against supplier diversity and grant programs, there is a real fear that DEI has become a dirty word in some circles, and any person or company that benefits from these programs is inferior.Some perceive that Black-owned businesses want handouts. The reality is that these business owners simply want an equal opportunity to compete for business.
“Early on in our development, we were speaking with chief learning officers, chief diversity officers at some of the world's largest companies,” said Smith. Not only did they provide feedback on using immersive learning experiences to drive behavior change at scale to make these more equitable, inclusive workplaces, but they were also the users of the MVP, became the first customers, and made introductions to their peers at other companies.
The IIE leverages a 1:1 private investment match by focusing on the needs of different market segments. This includes mobilizing capital to support diverse businesses receiving government and corporate contracts and scaling diverse-founded companies by funding emerging fund managers through debt, private equity, and venture capital funding.