Coverage from Medium Authority Magazine, published 2024-11-04.
An Authority Magazine "Meet The Disruptors" interview published Nov. 4, 2024, profiled Kalamazoo Forward Ventures, a Southwest Michigan investment fund that describes itself as the region’s first Black-owned fund. According to the piece, the fund was founded in 2024 by seven leaders drawn from the Kalamazoo community, among them Jamauri A. Bogan, chief executive of Bogan Developments, and Dwayne Powell Jr., chief executive and co-founder of UAE Workforce Solutions, both of whom were interviewed. The fund’s stated mission is to direct capital, expertise and resources toward underrepresented founders and innovators and to widen access to economic opportunity for people who have faced systemic barriers.
The interview cites a frequently quoted figure that only 1.3 percent of the roughly $68 trillion managed across private equity and venture capital is controlled by people of color and women. At the time of publication the fund said it had completed fundraising and begun deploying capital into operating businesses and real estate, and identified affordable housing development as a priority problem in its community.
