Coverage from Face2Face Africa, published 2024-09-27.
Southwest Michigan gained its first Black-owned venture capital firm with the arrival of Kalamazoo Forward Ventures, known as KZFV, which opened with a $50 million capital commitment. The firm is the work of seven Michigan businessmen who intend to deploy money raised from limited partners into startups, innovators and founders from groups that have historically struggled to reach investors in the Kalamazoo area. The report credits WWMT-3 TV for details of the launch.
Eric L. Wimbley, who leads First Line Risk Management and KZFV’s venture investment arm, said the group arrived at the fund size by first considering what the partners wanted to achieve for the local community and its business ecosystem, with the dollar target expanding as their ideas expanded. The piece frames the launch as a milestone for a region where Black entrepreneurs have had limited access to institutional capital, and positions KZFV as a vehicle for closing that gap.
