Visionario VC in New York

In our mission to develop talent across the diaspora, Visionario VC (VVC) brought together founders from the US, Africa, and the United Kingdom for a special night in Manhattan. VVC and Chris White, founder-CEO of BondCliq, sat down for a fireside chat at the British Consulate-General’s office. BondCliq, one of our collective investments, recently completed a successful Series A funding round. The audience included a group of UK and African based founders from the 1000 Black Voices Accelerator, and US founders of Bank of America’s Breakthrough Labs Accelerator. Chekesha Kidd, CEO and founder of Kinumi (a Techstars company), another one of our successful collective investments was also present.

The event, sponsored by Latham & Watkins, was part of a trade mission to New York by 1000 Black Voices and the British Consulate-General in New York. The purpose of the trade mission was to introduce Black Tech founders to investors, network with participants in the VC ecosystem and understand the necessary steps to launch a start-up in the US market.

The chat was insightful and inspiring. Chris described the various stages of his startup journey and welcomed an open dialogue with the audience. The quality and quantity of questions as well as the energy of the founders demonstrated the great potential in minority-led startups.

The staff of the British Consulate-General in New York were excellent and very accommodating – even extending our original end time. Myself and my colleagues at Visionario VC were pleased to spend time with these excellent founders and will continue to advise and partner with them in the future.

We want to thank the British Consulate-General, 1000 Black Voices, Bank of America, David Ziyambi of Latham & Watkins, Loren Douglass of MKD International Partners, Craig Mackay of England and Company, Anthony Kendall of Titus Mitchell, and KPMG for taking part in our first fireside chat. More to come!