Government officials must step up to tackle racial and gender disparities in venture capital funding, Massachusetts Life Sciences Center President and CEO Kenn Turner said Tuesday during a panel discussion at the BIO International Convention in Boston.
Black startup founders in Massachusetts raised $110 million in venture capital last year, for example, which is less than 1 percent of the total $19.5 billion that companies overall managed to secure, Turner wrote in a March LinkedIn post.
"That to me says something is wrong -- something is fundamentally wrong," said Turner, as he also lamented a dearth of funding secured by female entrepreneurs.
The panel touted the Massachusetts Next Generation Initiative, which is seeking a new tranche of applicants among underrepresented entrepreneurs who have companies registered to do business in Massachusetts. The program -- which has so far supported 26 companies with funding from public-private partnerships -- provides participants with access to grant funding and mentors for one year as they navigate the life sciences sector.
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The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center has allocated $300,000 annually for MassNextGen over the next five years, said Carla Reimold, vice president of industry strategy and investments at the center.
Secretary of Economic Development Yvonne Hao, speaking to two past program awardees on the panel, told the female founders and entrepreneurs more broadly that the Healey administration has their back.
"We want you in Massachusetts. We want you to start your companies here, we want you to expand your companies here," Hao said. "We want to do everything we can to support you here so you can be wildly successful and world leaders in Massachusetts ... We're a state that is 100 percent committed to investing and supporting our awesome founders and every diverse type of founder here in our state."
The panel came hours after Gov. Maura Healey emphasized her support for reauthorizing the state's life sciences initiative, which former Gov. Deval Patrick initially signed into law in 2008 to pump $1 billion into the sector over 10 years. But the administration is focused on supporting other sectors in the state, too, Hao said.
"This week happens to be bio because the global BIO conference is here, but there are many other leading sectors that we are focused on as part of our economic development plan," Hao told the News Service, without specifying other sectors.
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