St. Pete Chamber presents: Coronavirus Impact Insights 7-2-20 .

On this episode, Irv Cohen, co-founder and managing partner of Seedfunders in St. Petersburg, joins Chris Steinocher, president and CEO of the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce, and Joe Hamilton, publisher of the St. Pete Catalyst, to talk about the new Seedfunders’ Opportunity Fund.

The fund will make pre-seed investments in Black-owned startups throughout Florida, Seedfunders said when it launched the fund two weeks ago.

“It’s really about the opportunity gap in our community. We’re not all going to succeed if that gap keeps growing,” said Cohen, a long-time Wall Street veteran who now lives in St. Petersburg.

The Seedfunders Opportunity Fund cuts through historic discriminatory policies that have kept Black entrepreneurs from creating wealth through their own businesses. Typically, Seedfunders, an early-stage investment firm, will only invest in a company that already has a minimum viable product. That requires some financial backing early on friends and family. Black entrepreneurs might not have access to that friends and family funding, so the new Opportunity Fund will fill that gap.
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