When Darryl Finkton, Jr. started his career, he worked in the world of asset management. He was “that guy” who made sure that the super-wealthy were able to keep their hard-earned money and to have it work for them and not the other way around.
But he realized, at some point, that there had to be more.
And with that in mind, he set up a fund which he ended up calling the EPMT Fund (or the End Poverty, Make Trillions Fund).
Darryl Finkton, Jr. — who started in the projects of Indianapolis, IN, and ultimately went to Harvard to study neurobiology — told TechCrunch that his ultimate goal with the fund was to help people who were like him, but didn’t have the luck, the means, or the opportunity to get themselves out of their dire situations.
“In my household, we often struggled to make ends meet and put food on the table. More family members than I care to count have died from the dire circumstances that extreme poverty creates,” he said to TechCrunch. “Although I was able to overcome obstacles and ultimately graduated from both Harvard and Oxford, I remain intimately aware of the countless difficulties one faces when your next meal is not promised.”
The EPMT Fund has already raised more than $200 million and has invested in more than 15 companies. They’ve invested in Elpidatec (an app designed to treat opioid addiction), Snowball Wealth (which is designed to help with student loan debt), and Maia Life Sciences (which helps with science programs for underserved communities).
For Darryl Finkton, Jr., his goal was not to invest in welfare programs (which, he says, perpetuate the poverty cycle), but to help those in poverty find their way out.
“These programs treat the symptoms of poverty, not the root cause — which is not having money,” he said.
