Funding to Black founders was down in 2023 for the third year in a row

Black founders in the U.S. raised 0.48% of all venture dollars allocated last year. That’s around $661 million out of $136 billion, according to the latest Crunchbase data.

That number is the lowest it’s been in recent history. The past two years saw Black founders raising at least 1%. Last year, though, suspicions were confirmed when the market cooling really did appear to have an extreme impact on the Black community. In Q1’23 and Q2’23, Black founders raised 0.74%. In Q3’23, the group raised 0.13%, and in Q4’23 they raised 0.20%.

There’s been a consistent yearly decline in funding since the murder of George Floyd in 2020, which saw a record-breaking amount of capital flow to Black founders as the tech industry promised to better support them.