Angel investing in Black startups plummeted after 2020. These investors are trying to reverse the trend.

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An NAACP flyer campaigning for the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives in 1922, but was filibustered to defeat in the Senate. Dyer, the NAACP, and freedom fighters around the country, like Flossie Baily, struggled for years to get the Dyer and other anti-lynching bills passed, to no avail. Today there is still no U.S. law specifically against lynching. In 2005, eighty of the 100 U.S. Senators voted for a resolution to apologize to victims' families and the country for their failure to outlaw lynching. Courtesy of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

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Claude, age 23, just months before his 1930 murder. Courtesy of Faith Deeter.

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Souvenir Portrait of the Lynching of Abram Smith and Thomas Shipp, August 7, 1930, by studio photographer Lawrence Beitler. Courtesy of the Indiana Hisorical Society.

An Iconic Lynching in the North

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February 24, 2023

By Sharon Epperson, CNBC

As a young physician, Dr. Elizabeth Clayborne saw a need for a better way to stop nosebleeds, a common condition she saw at the hospital where she worked, especially among children. She developed a bandage-like device for your nose and secured patents for her invention, called “NasaClip.” Then, in 2020, the Washington, D.C.-Baltimore area physician launched a business to market the device.

[…]

After tapping friends and family, many startups like NasaClip try to get funding from individual investors — so-called “angel investors” — at an early stage of their business. Yet only a fraction of those investors are Black.

“I was heavily supported by angel investors who are interested in female and minority-owned businesses,” said Clayborne. “And really, without them, I would not be able to take these essential first steps to get to where I am today.”

Still, getting funding for a startup is challenging, especially for Black entrepreneurs and founders. In 2020, the year George Floyd was murdered, Black founders got a record 16% of angel investments, up from 0.5% in 2019. However, in 2021 that figure fell to just 2%, according to research from the Angel Capital Association, which represents individuals and groups of investors.

That sharp drop going to Black founders was “disappointing,” said Pat Gouhin, CEO of the Angel Capital Association. “We’re still trying to do what we can to push to have as much funds go to those underrepresented communities as we can.”

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Supply chain issues also impact Black business owners.

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