With a goal of investing in 1,000 minority and women entrepreneurs in the next 20 years, Harlem Capital Partners is taking aim at the exclusive world of startup funding

For entrepreneurs raising money, the world of venture capital can feel insular and opaque, more about who you know than what you’re building.

by MICHELLE MA

For Wall Street Journal

Photo: The co-founders of New York venture-capital firm Harlem Capital Partners, from left to right: Jarrid Tingle, Brandon Bryant, Henri Pierre-Jacques and John Henry. PHOTO: JEFFREY MATOS

One early-stage venture-capital firm is taking a different approach, aiming to fund a wider group of founders.

Harlem Capital Partners opened its doors in 2015 with an ambitious goal: to raise $1 billion to fund 1,000 minority and women founders over the next 20 years. The funding gap is wide. According to the firm’s estimates, only 3% of venture-capital funds go to startups founded by women and minorities. Companies with at least one female founder were involved in 15% of venture-capital deals in the U.S. in 2018, according to PitchBook Data Inc. Similar data on race is not available.

The New York-based firm, founded by managing partners Henri Pierre-Jacques and Jarrid Tingle, alongside venture partners John Henry and Brandon Bryant, says it is throwing open the ideas-sourcing process, a radical departure from the norm, where most deals come from referrals and introductions. By contrast, Messrs. Tingle and Pierre-Jacques publish their email addresses on the company website. About half of the 950 companies that have pitched them did so without a previous introduction, resulting in two of the firm’s 12 deals. Their portfolio includes a menstrual-products company, a media platform for black millennials and a cardiac rehabilitation program.

The firm is seeking to raise $25 million for its first fund but won’t disclose how much it has raised. Private-equity firm TPG Capital announced a minority stake in Harlem Capital last month and became a limited partner in its first pooled fund. KKR & Co. also announced a partnership with the firm in May aimed at giving the private-equity firm access to a more diverse talent pool.

acques, 27, and Mr. Tingle, 28, are both 2019 graduates of Harvard Business School. They met in 2011 as undergraduate students—Mr. Pierre-Jacques at Northwestern University and Mr. Tingle at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School—participating in Management Leadership for Tomorrow, a college and career prep program for high-achieving young African-American, Latino and Native-American professionals. They started an early version of the firm in 2015 while both were working in private equity and went full-time this year.