Venture capital firm Harlem Capital just hit a new milestone in its mission to invest in 1,000 diverse founders over the course of 20 years.
Last week, the company announced it had raised $40.3 million to an oversubscribed fund.
"What we're focused on is seed and Series A companies that are run by minority and women founders," managing partner Henri Pierre-Jacques told Cheddar on Monday. Venture partner Brandon Bryant agreed, saying to increase the number of minority- and women-run startups, "you need to start by deploying capital."
Pierre-Jacques and Bryant joined Cheddar the same day PitchBook announced venture capital investment in all-female founding teams has hit a record high of 2.8 percent of capital invested across the U.S. in startups. But that is still a very small sliver of the VC funding that has been distributed.
To remedy the low percentage of investment into female-founded companies Pierre-Jacques said: "you need more diversity-focused funds."
The "industry-agnostic" fund invests between $250,000 and $1 million per organization and so far has invested in nine companies in nine cities. Pierre-Jacques said New York and Los Angeles have been their best cities so far. San Francisco will finally enter Harlem Capital's portfolio next month.
"We just don't see a lot of people of color coming from San Francisco," Pierre-Jacques said.
Bryant said the company's media presence has helped the fund attract more companies than it can fund.
"There's definitely not a pipeline problem," Bryant said, noting 50 percent of "our flow comes from management teams reaching out to us."
Nestlé has dismissed its CEO Laurent Freixe after an investigation into an undisclosed relationship with a direct subordinate. The company announced on Monday that the dismissal was effective immediately. An investigation found that Freixe violated Nestlé’s code of conduct. He had been CEO for a year. Philipp Navratil, a longtime Nestlé executive, will replace him. Chairman Paul Bulcke stated that the decision was necessary to uphold the company’s values and governance. Navratil began his career with Nestlé in 2001 and has held various roles, including CEO of Nestlé's Nespresso division since 2024.
Kraft Heinz is splitting into two companies a decade after they joined in a massive merger that created one of the biggest food companies on the planet. One of the companies will include brands such as Heinz, Philadelphia cream cheese and Kraft Mac & Cheese. The other will include brands like Oscar Mayer, Kraft Singles and Lunchables. When the company formed in 2015 it wanted to capitalize on its massive scale, but shifting tastes complicated those plans, with households seeking to introduce healthier options at the table. Kraft Heinz's net revenue has fallen every year since 2020.
About 780,000 pressure washers sold at retailers like Home Depot are being recalled across the U.S. and Canada, due to a projectile hazard that has resulted in fractures and other injuries among some consumers.
