Female decision-makers make up just 9.65 percent of venture capital firms, but they are a powerful force. By influencing women to invest in their VC firms, female VCs have begun to leverage the 51% of wealth held by women in the U.S.
Now, this one is really unique! Boston-based Mendoza Ventures, a female and Latinx-founded venture capital firm, has secured the first close on its third fund at $100M led by Bank of America, including Grasshopper Bank and other investors.
It’s worth mentioning that Bank of America has allocated $400M as part of its commitment to advancing racial equality and economic opportunity.
The VC will use the funds to invest in early growth-stage startups focusing on diverse teams.
“As a female and Latinx founded and led venture fund, we are uniquely positioned to fund the series A to B for diverse or female-led founders,” says Adrian Mendoza, General Partner of Mendoza Ventures. “This is one of the very few diverse-led VC funds that are funding at this stage, especially in a market where capital is shrinking for diverse founders.”
LatinX-owned venture fund
Led by husband-wife duo Adrian and Senofer Mendoza, Mendoza Ventures is a fintech, AI, and cybersecurity venture fund focused primarily on diversity.
The VC launched its pilot fund in 2016 and its second fund — Fund II, in 2019.
As per the company,’s claims, 80% of Fund II’s capital allocation went to underrepresented founders — female, immigrant, person of color, or LBGTQ.
Investing in AI, cybersecurity and fintech, Mendoza Venture claims that roughly 75% of its portfolio consists of startups led by immigrants, people of color, and women. The firm has made eight investments and recruited senior managers, C-level executives, and domain experts as operating partners from places like State Street, Amazon Web Services, and Microsoft. Some of its notable investments include Alyce, Daylight, Wabbi and more.
“Bank of America’s investment into Mendoza Ventures underscores our ongoing efforts to address the persistent gap in access to growth capital for minority- and women-led businesses,” says Renee Nalbandyan, Director of Global Corporate Strategy at Bank of America. “Mendoza Ventures is at the forefront of supporting innovation and driving diversity within Venture Capital and across the fintech industry, and our investment is a step towards creating positive change and more economic opportunities across the country.”
