Coverage from Black Enterprise, published 2024-10-07.
Black Enterprise profiled Kalamazoo Forward Ventures, the seven-man collective that announced a $50 million capital commitment on Sept. 24, 2024 to support underrepresented founders in Southwest Michigan across venture capital, real estate and Main Street small business. The piece framed the launch against U.S. Census Bureau figures showing roughly 3,367 non-minority-owned employer firms in Kalamazoo compared with 255 minority-owned ones. Partner Von H. Washington Jr. described the three-sector structure, while Jamauri Bogan, the group’s youngest partner and described as the city’s first and only Black real estate developer, tied the housing arm to a local shortage and to the fact that fewer than 1 percent of development companies nationally are BIPOC-, Black- or women-owned.
Former mayor Bobby Hopewell spoke about relationships built across neighborhoods and government. Dwayne Powell Jr. said the fund aimed to support organizations already serving small businesses rather than displace them.
The article revisited 2020 pandemic grant disparities, noting that of $500,000 distributed through United Way of Battle Creek and Kalamazoo Region, 58 percent went to white-owned businesses. Eric L. Wimbley and Eric B. Cunningham stressed a for-profit but relational approach.
