Grammy-award winning rapper Chamillionaire is putting his money where his mouth is, announcing on Instagram that he planned to invest $25,000 into a startup led by a woman or racial minority.
Chamillionaire, whose real name is Hakeem Seriki, has a long history or being a shrewd and prolific investor in the startup scene. He was one of Lyft's early investors. The “Ridin” rapper is hoping to promote more diversity in the startup scene by investing in companies led by diverse groups of people.
Chamillionaire is partnering with legendary rapper E-40 and equity investment platform Republic to offer the funding, with the hopes that it will promote diversity in a field dominated by white men.
Yahoo reported that just 16% of the money invested into U.S. venture-backed startups went to companies with at least one female founder and only 2.5% of the money went to startups founded by all women.
"Attention entrepreneurs! @chamillionaire, @e40, and @joinrepublic will be INVESTING $25k in a minority or woman founded startup so watch the entire video for details," he wrote on his Instagram page.
In a lengthy interview with Yahoo, he explained why he thought it was important for there to be startups led by women and minorities.
“I’ve been in this tech industry for a while and I’ve been seeing a lot of people out here trying to raise capital and a lot of time it just doesn’t go to people of color or women,” Chamillionaire told Yahoo Finance.
“Now that I’m here, I see that there is a certain type of founder that gets, you know, funding from these companies. And I understand that people tend to spend money on things that they’re comfortable with.”
He won a grammy in 2006 from his hit song Ridin’ and has since become a big time investor in the startup scene. He had a similar contest in February for Black History Month, offering to invest $10,000 in a business run by a Black person.
Chamillionaire announced the contest on his Convoz video app, which he started last year. To join the competition you have to download the app and submit your pitch by June 15. The winner of the contest will be announced a week later on June 21.
“There are a lot of people that have great ideas that want to create disruptive companies that change the world but everybody doesn’t have the skills to be able to do that. So, ultimately when I’m looking at somebody, I’m looking them in the eyes and asking them questions and I have to believe that they’re able to take this company from A to Z,” Chamillionaire said to Yahoo.
“When you see a young African American that walks in that has a hat on backwards like me, then sometimes it’s a little tough to bet on founders for something like that for someone that just doesn’t have experience with people like that,” he said. “So I think we have to create more diversity in the industry.”
