“When we invest in CPG founders at Capitalize VC we love to see brands with a strong foothold in either DTC or wholesale with plans of growing through multi-channel sales incorporating two if not three of the strategies we’ve outlined above..”

“It’s easiest to pitch a company to somebody who is familiar with the problem, so for a lot of Black founders, oftentimes they’re solving problems that are potentially a new problem for an investor who is unfamiliar,” Flippin said. “Familiarity with the problems that diverse founders are trying to solve is definitely a huge hurdle for the VC space, which historically has not been very diverse.”

Twelve venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) funds were selected for VCI's 2022 fellowship cohort. These funds represent a total of fifteen emerging fund managers that joined the two-month education and mentoring program. The fellowship was designed for women and BIPOC fund managers based in the United States who are building their first fund. The VCI Fellowship is made possible with the generous support of Visa Foundation, Skoll Foundation, Blue Haven Initiative, the MacArthur Foundation, and the Nasdaq Foundation.

Capitalize VC, a new fund that launched last year by Tessa Flippin, announced it has backed Kribi Coffee, a coffee company based in Forest Park.

Kribi is a Black-owned coffee company focused on sustainably and ethically sourced coffee, primarily from Africa. Along with the company's brick-and-mortar location, it also sells in retail as well as direct to consumer.

"I think we have a lot of momentum right now (in Chicago)," Flippin said. "I'm excited to join this cohort of funds that are coming in to back these founders. There are a lot of very talented Black and Latinx founders in Chicago."