Coverage from Crains Grand Rapids, published 2024-10-01.
Crain’s Grand Rapids Business detailed how the partners behind Kalamazoo Forward Ventures intend to combine investment returns with social equity to lift the Kalamazoo economy. Over a ten-year horizon the $50 million fund planned to back high-growth startups, Main Street-style small businesses run by underrepresented entrepreneurs, and real estate projects weighted toward affordable and workforce housing. Four partners grew up in the same neighborhood on Kalamazoo’s east side, and all had worked in organizations serving people locked out of conventional capital.
Former mayor and general partner Bobby Hopewell called the effort life mission work. Daniel Jefferies, managing partner of the venture capital component and founder of IT firm Newmind Group Inc., said the group wanted Kalamazoo seated alongside Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor, Lansing and Detroit in Michigan’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Dwayne Powell Jr., managing partner of the Main Street Capital arm and a former community development vice president at Old National Bank and PNC Bank, said the goal was to help entrepreneurs reach a yes. Partners spent roughly a year assembling the commitments and had three initial investments awaiting announcement, with strong inbound interest reported in the first days after launch.
