Funding to Black entrepreneurs in the U.S. hit nearly $1.8 billion through the first half of 2021 — a more than fourfold increase compared to the same time frame last year. Led by funding to early-stage startups, this year’s half-year total has already surpassed the $1 billion invested in Black founders in all of 2020 and the $1.4 billion invested the year before that.
“I haven’t seen this amount of interest and conversation in the business community at large about race since the anti-apartheid movement of the ’90s,” said Charley Moore, founder and CEO of Rocket Lawyer.