Cincinnati, Ohio, February 22, 2021 – Today, Queen City Angels announced a strategic partnership with Black Achievers to further its dedication to diversity and inclusion. Through this partnership, Black professionals will be exposed to education on the roles that Angel Investing and Venture Capital play in fueling the entrepreneurial ecosystem including sharing smart practices for investing in early-stage startups. Further, aspiring Black entrepreneurs can expect collaboration in training and mentoring on what it takes to found and fund high growth startups.
“One of the primary goals of Black Achievers is to give our members access to opportunities that have not traditionally been made available to the Black community. That’s why this partnership with Queen City Angels is so powerful because it gives our members access to important education and opportunities for wealth-building investments in early-stage startups.” says Michael Moore, President/CEO of Black Achievers. “Black Achievers has a membership base of over 4,000 people. Identifying investors from our group and plugging them into the proven track record of Queen City Angels is a great way to help build wealth in the Black community.”
Historically, less than 2% of angel investors have come from the African American community, and only about 1% of Venture Capital is invested in Black founders – a significant underrepresentation.
As part of a 2015 strategy refresh, QCA committed to focus on improving outcomes by increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion on the investor side as well as the entrepreneurial side. QCA’s DEI Committee leader, Sue Baggott, explains: “First, we conducted research to uncover the barriers preventing women and people of color who were qualified accredited investors from participating in angel investing. Next, we developed plans to reduce these barriers to attract and educate a more diverse investor membership.” As a result of these and other initiatives, QCA has substantially increased the number of women and people of color who have become investor members.
Sue continued: “Beyond this, we increased our outreach to more diverse entrepreneurial teams to encourage them to seek funding through QCA. After meeting Michael in 2020, we realized that a QCA collaboration with Black Achievers could provide a wonderful opportunity to help them achieve their goals as well as build on our progress to date.”
Tony Shipley, Founder of QCA and Chair of the National Angel Capital Association expressed his support for the Black Achiever collaboration: “Entrepreneurs are the engine for economic growth and angels provide the fuel. It has been demonstrated many times that diverse and inclusive teams deliver better business outcomes, so we are excited to partner with Black Achievers to increase diversity among our investors as well as to broaden support for diverse entrepreneurial teams.”
About Black Achievers
Black Achievers, Inc. was founded in 2018 by Michael R. Moore. Black Achievers is now one of the largest Black Professional organizations in the state of Ohio. With over 4,000 members in Cincinnati and over 30,000 members nationwide. The organization's mission is to connect, educate and economically empower African Americans. Serving as a pipeline of diverse talent for nonprofits and corporations. Black Achievers is uniquely positioned to help organizations with their attraction and retention needs of African Americans. For more information visit: www.blackachievers.com.
About Queen City Angels
Queen City Angels (QCA) is a group of more than 130 experienced and maturing accredited investors in the Cincinnati region. QCA members reside in 7 states and include former corporate executives and entrepreneurs. QCA investor members evaluate early-stage angel investment opportunities and provide on-going mentoring to young businesses with exceptional growth potential. QCA members typically donate the equivalent of $5,000,000 per year in pro-bono mentoring, coaching, and guidance for entrepreneurs to improve their success and the success of angel investors. Since 2000, QCA members have directly invested $75 million in more than 95 portfolio companies. The total capital invested in these companies, including QCA members’ capital, syndication partners’ capital, follow-on venture capital funds and venture debt is in excess of $620 million. CB Insight ranked QCA second out of 370 national angel organizations. For more information, visit www.qca.com