Wis. sports teams form ‘league’ to invest in startups

ASHWAUBENON, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers, Milwaukee Bucks and Milwaukee Brewers are pitching in to tackle a long-term problem: helping Blackand Latinx-owned startups score investment money.

In collaboration with Microsoft, Wisconsin’s three major-league franchises created the Equity League, a networking initiative to increase investment in businesses started by Black and Latinx entrepreneurs.

The Packers said 1% of venture capital-backed startups have Black founders and less than 2% are Latinx. Only 3% of employees at venture capital investment funds are Black or Latinx professionals.

In short, when money and resources are handed out for potentially great new ideas, Black and Latinx entrepreneurs are at the back of the line, if they even know about the line in the first place. Equity League is designed to change that experience.

“Our goal is to invest in companies and founders that have strong potential to produce both significant financial returns and large-scale social impact,” said Israel Squires, Equity League’s director.

Packers President and CEO Mark Murphy said the Jacob Blake shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in August was a watershed for all three teams.

In response, the Bucks sat out a playoff game, causing the NBA to cancel all games for that day. The Brewers did the same for a regular season game; the Packers took off a day from training camp.

Each of the founding partners of Equity League committed an undisclosed amount of money to launch the initiative. The founding principle is that genius is equally distributed, regardless of race, gender or ZIP code, but opportunity is not.

TitletownTech, founded by the Packers, Microsoft and other investors, offered a platform for helping underserved entrepreneurs. The organization offers venture capital and other services, including Microsoft expertise, to some 20 startups.

Murphy said one side of the network formula is for Equity League to find money and resources for Black and Latinx startups. The other is to connect them with organizations removing barriers and creating opportunities for those companies.

Equity League looks to build a portfolio of impactdriven technology companies.