Serial entrepreneur and Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs’ Summit and TechConnext featured speaker, Clarence Wooten, has launched VentureFund.io, a data-driven funding platform.
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With VentureFund.io a startup can link data from Google Analytics, Mixpanel, Stripe, Braintree, and more. That data can be shared with investors that a startup founder chooses through the VentureFund.io app. Investors can, in turn, see a startup’s growth and other important data. VentureFund.io eliminates the need for startups to pitch investors.
“All VCs want data,†said Wooten to BlackEnterprise.com. “The more data they have, the more informed an investment decision they can make. We created the plumbing and infrastructure for them to see this data.â€
With VentureFund.io, investors only see a startup’s data. “I know how it is when you are a Silicon Valley outsider or from a smaller market. With VentureFund.io it doesn’t matter where you are from, your educational level, or your ethnicity.â€
Minority founders have more trouble acquiring startup capital. Statistics show that VCs are more likely to invest in companies with founders more like them–predominately white and male.
“Early funding is often the most difficult for people with less access to influence and money—particularly people of color and women,†said Aaron Walker, the founder of Camelback Ventures.
Black women
fare worst when seeking early funding, as DigitalunDivided’s Kathryn Finney’s #ProjectDiane report reveals.As of today’s launch, VentureFund.io has over 150 participating angel and venture investors representing firms including Google Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, DFJ, Social Capital, Upfront Ventures, General Catalyst Partners, Y Combinator, 500 Startups, and more (see the full list at http://VentureFund.io/about/investors).
Besides addressing the issue of funding bias, VentureFund.io is an effective and easy way for startups and interested investors to find each other.
“The launch of VentureFund.io today couldn’t come at a better time, with the explosive growth of web and mobile software innovations happening globally. Talented founders are launching and scaling software/app startups more quickly than at any other time,†said Wooten.
Clarence Wooten has been creating and building Internet startups since 1998. In 2006, he founded Groupsite, and more recently, Progressly, where he serves as chairman.