Actor Will Smith has joined basketball star Kevin Durant and others in a venture-capital fund that seeks to increase diversity in the tech industry.
“The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” is teaming up with Silicon Valley investor Andreessen Horowitz in an effort to increase interest in technology among black Americans. Profits from the $15 million fund will be funneled to organizations with the same goal.
“Andreessen is one of the best in the world at tech and so the opportunity to partner with them in the tech space and focus purposefully and intently on creating opportunities for people of color in tech … is an important one,” said Essence magazine publisher Richelieu Dennis, also a limited partner, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
A recent review of 1,500 U.S.-based venture capital partners found that roughly 60 percent are white males.
The data was gleaned by work by Richard Kerby, a partner at New York-based Equal Ventures, the newspaper reported.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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