Best Buy commits up to $10M investment towards BIPOC startups

Best Buy is continuing to build its investments towards supporting Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) entrepreneurs, as the company announced on Thursday an investment up to $10 million with Brown Venture Group.

The venture capital firm focuses exclusively on Black, Latinx and Indigenous technology startups in emerging technologies.

The Minnesota-based company notes that BIPOC entrepreneurs can face barriers as well as a lack of access to funding, and stated this move will help "empower the next generation within the tech industry."

Brown Venture Group, which is expected to be one of the largest funds in the United States with a required diversity mandate, is working toward supporting tech startups across the county. Investments are expected to begin this fall.

"We’re committed to taking meaningful action to address the challenges faced by BIPOC entrepreneurs," Best Buy CEO Corie Barry said in a statement. "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 commitment 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 organizations that are empowering BIPOC leaders in the tech industry.

The company says, within the past year, it has made several commitments to better address underrepresentation, including filling one of three new non-hourly corporate positions with BIPOC employees.

In addition, Best Buy says the company is committed to hiring 1,000 new employees to their technology team, with 30% of them being specifically Black, Latinx, Indigenous and women.

Best Buy and Brown Venture Group also stated their aim to support youth in the community, by launching an entrepreneurship program at Best Buy Teen Tech Centers "to help develop young entrepreneurs through education, mentorship, networking and funding access."

For more information on Best Buy’s recent initiatives, click here.