Techstars Alumni Daniel Smith, Mita Carriman Launch Venture Collective To Help Caribbean Founders Connect With Investors

A new venture has launched to amplify Caribbean founders.

Caribbean Venture Collective

Caribbean Venture Collective — founded by Daniel Smith (Keepingly) and Mita Carriman (Adventurely), both Techstars alumni of Caribbean descent — has launched to help founders realize their full potential, according to a news release shared with AFROTECH™. Entrepreneurs will be supported across eight impact verticals: travel/hospitality tech, logistics and supply chain, proptech, agritech, climate tech, fintech, healthtech, and edtech. The move will also help to improve a region that spans over 30 countries and territories, with a combined population of more than 40 million.

“Having been a founder in Trinidad and then moving to The U.S, realizing that one of the biggest issues that most founders face is around funding and being able to have access to funding and understand the market sizes, etc… What we’re doing is to ensure that we build a pipeline,” Smith told AFROTECH™. “One of the biggest things we also realized is that a lot of people who may have diaspora connections may not necessarily understand about venture capital. They may not understand about angel investing. They may not understand what are the startups out there. And then on the flip side, we know that there are companies who are building technologies that may be relevant to the Caribbean. But, they don’t have access or the relationships or the pipelines.”

Fellowship And Demo Day

Caribbean Venture Collective is looking to bridge this gap through an equity-free Founder Fellowship, which will offer networking, mentorship, and a chance to present at a yearly CVC Demo Day. There, founders will pitch their company among investors and Caribbean Venture Collective’s allies. The first group of 12 founders to join the Founder Fellowship will be selected starting in the third quarter of 2025.

“A powerful shift happens for diverse founders when we stop waiting for a seat at the table and start exploring opportunities to build our own,” Carriman, a first-generation Caribbean-American born in New York, NY, shared with AFROTECH™. “With Caribbean Venture Collective, our hope is to harness the collective power of the Caribbean diaspora to fuel a new wave of innovation and help more startups thrive.”

Apply Today

For those looking to apply for the Caribbean Venture Collective Founder Fellowship, you will have until June 16, 2025. Click here for more information.