Base10 Becomes First Black-Led VC Firm To Cross $1B AUM With New Fund
Founded in 2018, Base10 Partners is helmed by managing partners Adeyemi Ajao and TJ Nahigian. Now it’s just been announced as the first Black-led VC firm to cross $1 Billion AUM with its new fund.
This new early-stage fund follows a $137 million fund in 2018 and a $250 million Fund II in 2020.
Previously – the firm invested in about 30 companies per fund with large lead checks of up to $15 million that would give it 15% to 20% stakes in a startup.
The San Francisco-based firm uses a data-driven approach to invest in automation tech across sectors such as food and retail.
The firm built an automated software tool to track startups in real-time with a set of predictive data points; the 64 investments Base10 has made represent 0.4% of the more than 15,000 companies that it follows.
It has invested in dozens of sectors including software and food – it also led the seed round in restaurant marketing startup PopMenu, which is now valued at $525 million and incubated cloud kitchens company All Day Kitchens – set at $375 million.
Although it’s Black-led – it’s not inherently a minority-focused firm.
It has, however, been reported by Forbes that some 60% of its investments.
Last year, as part of the launch of its first growth stage fund of $250 million (it’s grown since to $300 million), the firm said it would route 50% of carried interest into endowments and scholarships at HBCUs (historically Black universities).
At a dinner in March with other Black investors after Ajao made it to $1 billion in AUM, he told Forbes that the occasion felt bittersweet because of the work left to do.
It was reported that on one hand, limited partners are increasingly asking him to connect them to other fund managers of underrepresented backgrounds, he says. “I was not hearing those questions four years ago.”
“We shouldn’t let people forget that all these things were said and all these promises were made,” Ajao said, adding, “We have to keep going because if not no one will.”
