Earlier this month Richelieu Dennis, CEO of ESSENCE Ventures and Sundial Brands, announced his $100 million New Voices Fund at the 2018 ESSENCE Festival in New Orleans in support of women of color entrepreneurs.
“About six months ago, we announced that we were launching the new voices fund. I’m proud to say that we get to officially, launch, the $100 million New Voices Fund for women of color entrepreneurs here at ESSENCE Festival this weekend. Over the past six months, we have already either invested in or committed to, over $30 million in Black women entrepreneurs,” said Dennis.
Dennis fully recognizes and acknowledges the success of his businesses thanks to the people of color who bought his products. This realization is the reason why he’s fully invested in supporting his fellow community.
“We are going to leverage the businesses that we’ve built—many of you know, Shea Moisture, Nubian Heritage, Madame CJ Walker—we have leveraged those businesses to generate capital to invest back in our communities and this is the first step in that journey. With the ESSENCE platform, we’ve now also formed a partnership between New Voices [Fund] and ESSENCE.”
The New Voices Fund follows the announcement of Dennis’ allocation of ESSENCE Communications, which alternatively is significant news. The ESSENCE brand is back to 100% Black ownership.
Photo Credit: Super Soul
