Closing the
Equity Gap
Creating Wealth and Fostering Justice
in Startup Investing
An entrepreneur and a social activist remake the future of investing and business, offering a groundbreaking “win-win” roadmap for creating wealth and addressing inequalities by investing in groundbreaking tech companies that defy assumptions from Silicon Valley to Wall Street.
Closing the
Equity Gap
Creating Wealth and Fostering Justice in Startup Investing
An entrepreneur and a social activist remake the future of investing and business, offering a groundbreaking “win-win” roadmap for creating wealth and addressing inequalities by investing in groundbreaking tech companies that defy assumptions from Silicon Valley to Wall Street.
Purchase the Book
Available in hardcover, e-reader, and audiobook.
Building A More Equitable Society
Companies backed by venture capital drive the U.S. economy, accounting for hundreds of billions of dollars in sales and profits. The problem is that most of the wealth created winds up enriching elites while the businesses funded by venture capitalists widen economic inequality. Committed to doing things differently, tech venture capitalists Freada Kapor Klein and Mitch Kapor launched Kapor Capital to prove that investing in gap-closing startups—companies whose services or products close opportunity gaps for both communities of color and low-income communities—is good business. Over the past decade, they’ve broadened the definition of success to include profits and accountability for the impacts a business has on employees, communities, and the planet, helping to launch close to 200 companies engaged in achieving social and economic justice while showing remarkable growth, with many valued in the hundreds of millions or billions of dollars.
What Readers
Are Saying
Kirkus Reviews
Decrying the fact that most venture capitalists “worship in the church of greed,” Klein and Kapor, founders of the impact investment firm Kapor Capital, offer myriad examples of businesses they have supported that are focused on doing good—specifically, on closing “gaps of access, opportunity, or outcome for low-income communities and/or communities of color.” An impact investment firm, the authors explain, aims to get a substantial return on their investments by funding entrepreneurs “whose own life experiences compel them to create companies and build wealth that will solve the difficult problems that they personally had to overcome.” Not surprisingly, those people come from underrepresented groups, including immigrants and children of immigrants, racial minorities, women, and individuals who identify as queer. At Kapor Capital, write the authors, “every person involved in making the fund’s investment decisions is a person of color.”
UPCOMING
Speaking Engagements
- Noggin U: Closing the Equity Gap To Drive Social Impact - Virtual | September 2, 2023, 1:00 ET
- Grace Hopper Celebration - Orlando, FL | September 26-29, 2023
- Smart City Expo USA 2023 - New York City, NY | October 4, 2023
- Nasdaq Purpose Forum | October 2, 2023
- TEDWomen Presents - Atlanta, GA | October 11-13, 2023
- AfroTech - Austin, TX | November 1-5, 2023
- Computer History Museum - Mountainview, CA | November 16, 2023
In the News
Read the latest articles on the efforts and successes of Freada Kapor Klein and Mitch Kapor as they continue to invest in Closing The Equity Gap.
The VC Fund Closing Equity Gaps — and Making Money
Harvard Business Review
3 Tips for Building a Company Focused on Closing the Equity Gap
Inc.
A Conversation with Computing Pioneer, Mitch Kapor
Thought Economics
Mitch discusses the power of investment to tackle the biggest problems in Global Society.
Spotlighting female founders closing the gap for women in the workforce
CNBC
Join CNBC’s Julia Boorstin and the change-makers driving gender diversity while delivering social and economic returns.
How companies can invest in employees and lead with purpose
Washington Post
Join Freada and Mitch and Washington Post Live for a series of conversations about leading with purpose, investing in employees and connecting with consumers.
Silicon Valley functions more like ‘a mirror-tacracy’ as the racial equity gap widens
Yahoo Finance
Co-Authors discuss how the venture capital industry will be impacted following the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, the racial equity gap in VC funding, and provide tips for entrepreneurs venturing into a “post-SVB world”.
At Upfront Summit 2023, AI is the omnipresent celebrity
TechCrunch+
Freada Kapor Klein and Mitch Kapor were among a panel of investors at the Upfront Summit discussing the future of generative AI.
The 52 Books That Business Leaders Are Recommending
Bloomberg
Check out Bloomberg’s annual list of what the most powerful people in business will be reading this year, and why.
Laid off from Twitter, now his competing app Spill is funded
TechCrunch+
Spill hopes to be a home for Black users from the get-go, since the very people building the app are part of that community.
Kapor Capital, Black-Led VC Firm Focused On ‘Impact,’ Raises $126 Million
Forbes
A Coalition of Tech Founders Bets Big on Public Infrastructure
Bloomberg
Learn More About the Kapor Family of Organizations: