Lyneir Richardson is a professor of professional practice at Rutgers Business School and executive director of the Center for Urban Entrepreneurship and Economic Development at Rutgers.
He's also the co-founder of the Chicago TREND Corporation, a social enterprise funded by prestigious impact investors to stimulate urban retail development.
And he's also one of the founders of the Black and Latino Angel Investment Fund, a group of individuals who have committed between $25,000 and $50,000 to invest in startups owned by founders of color.
"There's a new, troubling trend for entrepreneurs of color.
Investment firms and funding organizations are being struck with complaints, and in some cases, federal lawsuits, over the constitutionality of financially supporting BIPOC (Black, indigenous, and other people of color) entrepreneurs," Richardson writes at Medium.
"This new impediment to securing financing opportunities for BIPOC entrepreneurs is disconcerting," he adds.
"It's made even more complicated by the alarming statistic that of the $214 billion in venture capital funding allocated in 2022, a slim 1.1% went to companies with minority founders."
Plus, entrepreneurs of color who seek debt financing are still likely to be offered inferior loans, even when they're stronger applicants than their white peers, according to the Journal of Marketing Research.
Richardson suggests crowdfunding as
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