How We Invest

Kapor Capital is an Oakland-based venture capital firm that invests in industry-transforming startups. We redefine what venture capital is capable of by prioritizing a new outcome: a more fair, just, and equitable society for low income communities and underrepresented communities of color.

Our Investment Criteria
Our Investment Process
Founders’ Commitment
FAQ

Our Investment Criteria

The business world has changed. Today, impact drives profit, making it a crucial measure of success. Founders, consumers, and employees are socially aware and responsible. They care about the impact of the companies they create and support.

We invest in tech-driven early stage companies who are committed to making a difference and closing gaps of access in low income and communities of color in the United States. We are particularly interested in those that address the problems within African-American and Latinx communities.

We have specific criteria for evaluating businesses that help us ensure that the companies we work with are driving change, and creating economic value for founders, their employees, our limited partners, and the communities they work in.

We work with entrepreneurs from all backgrounds, especially people of color, women and other groups that have been historically underrepresented. We believe real life experience helps entrepreneurs identify rapidly-scalable, market-based solutions others have overlooked, and that gap-closing startups have an advantage when their teams reflect the demographics of the markets they serve.

Our Founders’ Commitment requires all new portfolio companies to make diversity and inclusion a core part of their business.

You will likely fit our criteria if:

Your startup is tech-driven, in the early stage, and has potential for large-scale economic success
Your startup closes a significant gap of access, opportunity or outcome for low income communities and/or communities of color in the U.S.
You are committed to building a diverse team and an inclusive company culture as guided by The Founders’ Commitment

Think you fit our criteria?

Submit your Pitch

You do NOT fit our criteria if:

You have passed the pre-seed or seed stage of investment
Your product has not yet been built or deployed
Your company does not have a direct impact on underrepresented communities and / or communities of color

Impact Themes

We are open to invest across every sector, including education, work, finance, justice, food and health. Beginning in 2011, we have invested exclusively in companies that have real potential to produce both significant financial returns and large-scale social impact by:

Closing gaps of access

Expanding economic opportunity

Increasing outcomes to social/economic issues

Closing gaps of access to information or goods and services

Groundbreaking solutions come from those who live within or are close to the communities that are dealing with inequities. Their real life experiences inform the questions they ask and the problems they identify, ultimately giving rise to innovative, profitable solutions that create a more equitable economy.

Expanding economic opportunity in the workplace and the marketplace

Solving society’s inequities cannot be done in a silo. We use the latest research insights to reevaluate and shape our practices as a venture capital firm, always focusing on creating more diverse, equitable economic opportunities.

Startups we work with must strive to create new jobs, investments, and opportunities for growth in underrepresented communities.

Increasing outcomes of market-based solutions to social and economic issues

Founding teams must be focused on creating new outcomes: a more fair, just, and equitable world that inherently creates economic value for themselves, their employees, limited partners, and communities.

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Our investment process, demystified

Over the years we have developed a process that allows us to thoroughly evaluate every pitch that is submitted through the lens of the most critical opportunities of the moment.

Our investment team reviews your submissions

Our team gives every pitch their undivided attention to find out if your business meets our investment criteria before taking the next step.

A series of calls are scheduled with you over two weeks

We find out more about potential founders and the businesses you have created during a series of phone calls.

30 minute intro call
45-60 minute demo and Q&A
Partner meeting

Our due diligence begins

We take an in-depth look into every aspect of your business, assessing the potential of financial growth and impacting social change in our most vulnerable communities.

A decision is reached

We make an investment decision with input from our investment team and the managing partners emeritus. The final decision is made by consensus between the two managing partners.

Next steps

Once a decision is made, we start working closely with the founding team, helping develop foundational strategic, social impact and diversity plans, that will give the business a competitive edge and change outcomes for Latinx and African-American communities.

Have more questions?

Take a look at our contact page

The Kapor Capital Founders’ Commitment

The key problem we face and address is the significant influence that the tech industry has on the types of products and services that are created in the U.S. Underrepresented communities are not included in this process, which means that the technology developed is biased towards one, more privileged, group of people.

We believe that investing in entrepreneurs who are part of marginalized communities allows for new ideas, markets, and revenue streams that are usually overlooked by the majority of investors. We also believe that teams from minority groups bring a competitive advantage to tech. That’s one reason why we focus on seed-stage startups. The earlier founders establish diversity and inclusion as a core value, the more likely it will become a part of the company’s DNA and positively impact its development and success.

The Kapor Capital Founders’ Commitment helps portfolio companies focus on equality and social impact. We believe in equal opportunity amongst all people, of all genders, races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, educational backgrounds, religions, abilities, socioeconomic backgrounds, immigration statuses, and more. Initiated by a group of Kapor Capital founders in the summer of 2015, the Founders’ Commitment officially launched in January 2016. It has evolved into a set of four actions known as “G.I.V.E.” that all new founding teams agree to uphold, and all pre-2016 portfolio founders have the choice to opt into.

G.I.V.E.: The Four Pillars of the Founders’ Commitment

Goals – Establish diversity and inclusion goals that are appropriate for your company’s funding stage, employee size, customer base, and core business. Include progress on diversity and inclusion in quarterly investor updates.

Invest – Invest in people ops technology (POT), training programs, and/or resources that assist with mitigating bias in the employment life cycle (e.g. sourcing, hiring, promotion).

Volunteer – Organize volunteer opportunities for your employees to engage with underrepresented communities, especially those that reflect the company’s customer base.

Educate – Participate in diversity and inclusion sessions to learn what works and what doesn’t. These sessions will be hosted by Kapor Capital and will be made available for virtual participation as needed.

In addition to aligning the Kapor Capital portfolio around a shared set of diversity and inclusion actions, the Founders’ Commitment establishes the firm’s commitment to provide exclusive resources, training, and recruitment opportunities for our founders. As we develop best practices from these engagements, we will make them publicly available.

Positive gap-narrowing social impact is already a key driver for Kapor Capital companies. Now, with the Founders’ Commitment, developing diverse teams and inclusive workplaces will become a core competency too. Looking ahead, Kapor Capital companies will be able to exemplify that it is possible to be both a great business and a great place for people from all backgrounds to work.

Who’s Made The Commitment

See All Companies

Frequently asked questions

The following section provides the answers to questions you might have about who we are and what we do.

About Us

Kapor Capital has transformed traditional venture capital, as a force for solving society’s inequities—investing to create new jobs, investments, and opportunities for growth for those who are typically excluded or underrepresented.

It is our goal to disrupt the very way that businesses are evaluated. We were one of the first venture capital firms to openly accept cold requests through our website, we created one of the first venture capital fellows programs to provide a pathway for individuals typically underrepresented in venture to enter investing, and in 2016 created the Kapor Capital Founders’ Commitment, helping our portfolio companies make collective progress in diversity, equity, and inclusion.

As a family of organizations, Kapor Capital, Kapor Center, and SMASH work collectively at the intersection of tech, diversity, and entrepreneurship to end racial and gender inequities that persist in the tech ecosystem. We use the latest research insights to reevaluate and shape our practices as a diverse venture capital firm focused on creating more equitable economic opportunities.

Founders Philosophy
At Kapor Capital, we believe that investing in underrepresented entrepreneurs can yield new ideas, markets, and revenue streams that others have overlooked. We also believe that building diverse and inclusive teams brings a competitive advantage to tech. That’s one reason why we focus on seed-stage startups still in their infancy. The earlier a company bakes in diversity and inclusion, the more likely it will become a part of its DNA and positively impact the company’s development and future success.

The Kapor Capital Founders’ Commitment
Initiated by a group of Kapor Capital founders in the summer of 2015, the Founders’ Commitment officially launched in January 2016. It has evolved into a set of four actions known as “G.I.V.E.” that all incoming founding teams agree to uphold, and all pre-2016 portfolio founders have the choice to opt into.
G.I.V.E. represents the four actions that all Founders’ Commitment companies agree to carry out:

Goals – Establish diversity and inclusion goals that are appropriate for your company’s funding stage, employee size, customer base, and core business. Include progress on diversity and inclusion in quarterly investor updates.
Invest – Invest in people ops technology (POT), training programs, and/or resources that assist with mitigating bias in the employment life cycle (e.g. sourcing, hiring, promotion).
Volunteer – Organize volunteer opportunities for your employees to engage with underrepresented communities, especially those that reflect the company’s customer base.
Educate – Participate in diversity and inclusion sessions to learn what works and what doesn’t. These sessions will be hosted by Kapor Capital and will be made available for virtual participation as needed.
Positive gap-narrowing social impact is already a key driver for Kapor Capital companies. Now, with the Founders’ Commitment, developing diverse teams and inclusive workplaces will become a core competency too.

Yes. The data shows that our portfolio reflects our belief in diversity:

60 out of 102 investments (59%) have a founder who identifies as a woman and/or an underrepresented person of color
38% of our first-time investments have a founder who identifies as a woman
34% of our first-time investments have a founder of a racially underrepresented background
25% of our first-time investments have a founder from an Asian group. Of these two are underrepresented

It is our view that all companies have some sort of impact in the world—some positive, some negative and that traditional investing causes real-world problems when companies refuse to acknowledge the harmful impacts their products have on communities.

We believe that it is our responsibility as investors to nurture only those innovations that make our world more equitable.

Kapor Capital pioneered gap-closing investing, identifying opportunities that provide both market and social equity growth, consistently proving that positive impact does not have to come at the cost of financial returns.

For more than ten years, we have invested in key sectors with outsized impact on the lives of low-income communities and communities of color, increasing access to opportunity and improving outcomes for millions of Americans.

Yes. Kapor Capital has disrupted conventional thinking on venture capital investing with proven results:
– Our Kapor Capital Investment Portfolio ranks in the top quartile of venture funds of comparable size.
– Our Kapor Capital Impact Fund outperforms the TVPI benchmarks portfolio ranks in the top quartile of venture funds of comparable size.

Elevate Labs is offering a free one-year subscription to its product Balance that can help people cope with the feelings of fear, anxiety, and isolation related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Emocha is now providing remote monitoring of health care workers who have been exposed to COVID-19 patients at 6 hospitals, with 4 more hospitals coming on board this week. Emocha onboards them onto the platform, tracks their symptoms and temperature, and engages with them daily to capture subjective concerns, routing severe symptoms back to Occupational Health nurses.

Hustle is offering free texting services for community outreach about the coronavirus to Federal, state, and local government authorities and Public health NGOs. Please spread the word!

Mytonomy has produced 5 videos (based on latest guidelines) to help its health system partners explain COVID-19 to their patients and keep them safe.

Newsela is making its entire product suite available, free of charge, to all districts and teachers through the end of the school year. Here is a link to its coronavirus resource center where you can find more info on how to create an account or access other resources.

Red Rabbit is providing emergency grab-&-go meals for kids in the NYC area.

Investment Criteria

Kapor seeks innovative tech solutions that address inequalities for those who are typically excluded or underrepresented. Our investments result in education equality, easy access to quality health care and nutritious foods, disruption of predatory lending, improving the lives of incarcerated individuals, reducing carbon emissions in neighborhoods of color, and so much more.

Kapor Capital invests in founders who share our desire to build businesses that create a more equitable economic future—one that doesn’t discriminate based on who you know or what zip code you grew up in.

We seek entrepreneurs from all backgrounds, especially people of color, women and other groups that have been historically underrepresented. We believe lived experience helps entrepreneurs identify rapidly-scalable, market-based solutions others have overlooked.

Funding

No, however philanthropic support is provided by the Kapor Center.

Kapor Capital chooses the pre-seed and seed round as its entry point , the stage when companies almost always have a working version of the product or service and a small number of active users. However, we evaluate on a case-by-case basis and cannot provide specific target numbers. If the product has not been built or deployed, it is very likely too early for us to invest.

Working with Kapor Capital

Our support of founders goes beyond traditional advice, mentorship, and office hours. We’re committed to providing exclusive resources, training, and recruitment opportunities that help businesses organically grow and become the best version of themselves.

We learn a valuable lesson with every experience of working with new founders. We openly share these best practices with other teams, to help push industries forward.

Our involvement includes:

– Helping founding teams establish their foundational social impact and diversity plans

– Engaging our companies as advisors, to assist with strategy, problem solving and growing the business.

– Connecting talent with founders through our talent network

– Volunteer opportunities

– Exclusive resources, training, recruitment opportunities, and more

Kapor remains intricately involved with their companies after funding, helping them establish their foundational social impact and diversity plans and engaging with them as advisors, assisting with strategy, problem solving, growing the business, and fundraising.

Still not sure if your company
is eligible?

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