After Kanarys’ latest round of fundraising, Mandy Price has joined an exclusive club.
She’s one of around 30 Black female founders to raise more than $10 million in venture capital, according to Crunchbase. Of the group, she’s Texas’ lone representative. Other members include celebrity startups Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty and Ciara’s The House of LR&C.
It’s a groundbreaking round for the diversity-focused tech company based in Dallas, Price said. But her newfound membership is bittersweet.
“We’re looking forward to numbers where we’re not at the handful,” Price said. “We want to see more women and Black founders get funded. Because we’re not the anomaly.”
Kanarys announced Wednesday that the company had raised $5 million in its latest fundraising round led by Seyen Capital, ramping up total capital raised to date to $10.5 million.
George Spencer, senior managing director of Seyen Capital, said he is confident the investment in Kanarys will further equity and transparency in the workplace.
“Today, companies are being held to higher standards when it comes to [diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging,] and Kanarys has developed the platform companies need to manage DEIB and make accountability more transparent and reliable for company boards, managers, investors, employees and other key stakeholders,” Spencer said.
There’s been an overall downturn in the private markets for all founders, Price said. But for Black entrepreneurs, it’s been a significant drop.
In the third quarter of 2021, Black founders raised $1.1 billion of the total $43 billion invested in that three-month period. A year later, venture capital for Black startups fell to $187 million.
Historically, Black and female founders have had difficulty raising funds, Price said.
“What we see is that a lot of the structural barriers that exist within corporate America, we see within the VC ecosystem,” Price said.
Women make up less than a fifth of managers at VC firms, and less than 5% of shops have a majority of female check writers, according to a Pitchbook report examining U.S. venture capital trends for women over the last 14 years.
Having more women decision-makers, or general partners, in venture capital firms can open doors for female founders to access necessary capital and provide limited partners with diversified investment opportunities, the report said.
Creating more access to VC funds is a way Price sees the landscape becoming more equitable. It requires venture capitalists to change their approach and processes to ensure they’re being pitched by a wide swath of entrepreneurs. For example, Price said some funds are creating an application process for interested startups, rather than hearing solely from entrepreneurs they’re warmly introduced to.
The funding enabled Kanarys to recruit and appoint six members to its executive team, growing the company’s staff to 28. The company plans to invest in its global capabilities.
In five years, the firm has secured clients like Yum! Brands, Silicon Labs, Chuck E. Cheese, 7-Eleven and other Fortune 500 companies.
