Today it was announced that the Milwaukee Bucks, Milwaukee Brewers and Green Bay Packers have formed The Equity League along with Microsoft. The Equity League is an investment network focused on investing in impact-driven tech startups led by Black and Latinx founders. Equity League has a mission of creating a long-term, positive impact on society.
The Equity League is an investment network focused on building a portfolio of impact-driven technology companies and creating more opportunities for Black and LatinX founders.
The Equity League will be a new impact investment division of venture capital fund TitletownTech. Formed in 2017, TitletownTech is a partnership between Microsoft and the Green Bay Packers that includes a venture studio and fund and located across the street from Lambeau Field and has now helped to build more than 20 startups.
This is the first time that these teams have collaborated in a major way to make social change in the community.
From the press release:
A founding principle of the Equity League is that while genius is equally distributed regardless of race, gender, or zip code, opportunity is not. When looking at Venture Capital-backed startups, only 1% of founders are Black and less than 2% are LatinX. On the investment side, just 3% of the employees at Venture Capital investment funds are Black or LatinX professionals.
The idea for the Equity League started with Mark Murphy, the President and CEO of the Green Bay Packers. Building on the success of TitletownTech, Murphy shared his new vision for an investment network with Rick Schlesinger, President of Business Operations for the Milwaukee Brewers and Peter Feigin, President of the Milwaukee Bucks. They were on board and excited to play an active role in changing the ecosystem to better represent the diversity across the country and to create generational impact. "The shared values between the Packers, Bucks, Brewers, Microsoft and TitletownTech is what made this possible. It's time for us to step up and I'm proud we are taking a bigger role to focus on driving meaningful change and bridging a significant gap for social impact companies and minority founders," said Murphy.
"We are proud to forge a partnership with the Packers and Brewers to generate such meaningful opportunities for Black and LatinX founders," said Bucks and Fiserv Forum President Peter Feigin. "Our state's professional sports teams are excited to create long-term positive change together." And as Rick Schlesinger said, "The Equity League will create more opportunities for social impact companies and minority Founders, which we believe will generate meaningful outcomes for all stakeholders."
"The Equity League at TitletownTech is a meaningful step to help Black and LatinX founders get access to capital and support to grow their startups into thriving businesses. We are delighted to continue our support of TitletownTech through this unique partnership that brings together sports, business, and community leaders, said Brad Smith, President of Microsoft. "As an organization, we are committed to driving positive social change and using technology to open more doors of access and opportunity."
Joining TitletownTech as Director of the Equity League is Israel Squires, a M&A/securities lawyer, entrepreneur, former collegiate football player, and Wisconsin native. Prior to his role at TitletownTech as the Director of the Equity League, he raised millions in Venture Capital funding, scaled startups in both the US and China and broke barriers as a LatinX tech CEO.
"We're attacking a multi-faceted, generational problem with a multi-faceted, generational solution," Israel Squires, Director of the Equity League states. "Our goal is to invest in companies and founders that have strong potential to produce both significant financial returns and large-scale social impact. Our strategy to achieve this is one that challenges the status quo and we're excited to show how the venture capital and startup space can be used to facilitate long-term, positive change."
The Equity League will target inequities that exist in the tech startup industry by prioritizing Black and LatinX founders and hiring minority venture fellows, while also investing in sectors including, but not limited to Education, Fintech, Digital Inclusion, Health Equality, Urban Innovation and Criminal Justice Reform.
