Best Buy announces $10m investment for BIPOC tech startups

Best Buy is set to invest up to $10 million with Brown Venture Group, a venture capital firm that focuses exclusively on black, latinx and indigenous startups in the emerging technologies space.

Investments will begin this autumn.

This builds on Best Buy’s recent announcement that it will spend at least $1.2 billion with BIPOC and diverse businesses by 2025, with a focus on funding and supporting partner organisations that are empowering BIPOC leaders in the tech industry.

Best Buy commits up to $10M investment with Brown Venture Group for BIPOC startups https://t.co/58vyoViOfR pic.twitter.com/HeaeRNhisw
— Best Buy News (@BBYNews) August 5, 2021

“We’re committed to taking meaningful action to address the challenges faced by BIPOC entrepreneurs,” says Best Buy CEO Corie Barry.

“Through partnerships like this, we believe we can begin to do this by helping to build a stronger, more vibrant community of diverse innovators in the tech industry, some of whom we hope will become partners of Best Buy in the future.”

The retailer and Brown Venture Group will also launch an entrepreneurship program at Best Buy Teen Tech Centers to help develop young entrepreneurs through education, mentorship, networking and funding access.

Founded in 2018, Brown Venture Group is in the process of raising its inaugural $50 million fund.

“The partnership with Best Buy represents an important shift in our business community from doing things for communities of colour to investing and executing with communities of colour in longer-term collaborative business relationships,” says Brown Venture Group Co-Founder and Managing Partner Dr. Paul Campbell.

The plan is to invest in technology startups in various industries across the US, including clean energy and retail.