Minority founders are getting a special kind of support from one of the most successful startup accelerators in Silicon Valley.
Y Combinator — a business accelerator — has launched a new feature on its website called the YC Directory to help investors, customers, and prospective founders discover all Y Combinator-backed companies created by Black founders.
According to a company blog post, the directory lists over 2,000 publicly launched startup companies from the accelerator with three new built-in filters to highlight Black-founded companies, Latinx-founded companies, and women-founded companies.
The idea for the new directory was inspired by internal conversations during the aftermath of the recent Black Lives Matter protests, according to the blog post. The consensus from the community was to then create landing pages to amplify Black, Latinx, and women founders in the Y Combinator fixture.
The page will reportedly be updated on a regular basis to ensure the most up-to-date information is being shared on behalf of these founders.
Additionally, Y Combinator will also be sharing new data including the combined valuation of these YC companies and the total amount they have raised, which will be refreshed annually.
According to Crunchbase News, Y Combinator and Y Combinator companies have already begun sharing some of this data. As of Sept. 21, 2020, the overall stats for these founded companies are as follows:
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– YC’s Black-founded companies have a combined valuation of $2.08 billion and raised $483 million (101 companies, 64 U.S. based).
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– YC’s Latinx-founded companies have a combined valuation of $13.5 billion and raised $3.9 billion (153 companies, 67 U.S. based)
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– YC companies founded by women have a combined valuation of $8.03 billion and raised $2.2 billion (256 companies, 202 U.S. based)
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Y Combinator hopes the directory will not only serve as a resource for people actively seeking out Black, Latinx, and women founders but also as an inspiration for aspiring minority business leaders looking to discover successful founders to learn from.
“We have the strongest community of founders in the world,” the company shared. “That strength comes not only from the success of their companies — but from the diverse experiences and backgrounds they bring to the YC community. We’re proud to share them with you.”
For more information on the YC Directory, click here.