What HBCU.vc does

HBCUvc, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) private operating foundation founded in 2017 by Hadiyah Mujhid and headquartered in San Francisco, with a mission to expand access to venture capital for HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) communities. The organization operates a fellowship-to-internship pipeline anchored by the Venture Access Program: Graduate Track (formerly the VC Fellowship)—a 6-8 week cohort-based VC training program—and Startup School: Pathways to Wealth, an in-person intensive for HBCU undergraduates and recent alumni. These core programs are supplemented by self-serve online courses on the Thinkific platform, including a Startup Toolkit Course and a Getting Started with Angel Investing Course. The technology stack is intentionally lightweight: programmatic infrastructure built on Squarespace for web, Thinkific for course delivery, Google Forms for application intake, and Calendly for stakeholder scheduling, reflecting a community-and-program operating model rather than a software product company.

HBCUvc serves four primary stakeholder segments: HBCU students and graduates seeking VC career entry, accredited HBCU alumni positioned as angel investors, Black founders seeking early-stage capital, and VC firms seeking diverse talent pipelines. Since 2017, the organization has trained 302 fellows, facilitated 181+ paid VC internships at 35+ partner firms, and reports that alumni have influenced $10M+ in capital for Black founders, with 47% of alumni having personally invested in startups. The enterprise motion is direct: VC firms sign partnership agreements (minimum $2,500 program fee plus a $14,000 minimum 10-week internship salary) to access HBCUvc's vetted candidate pool, while 79% of fellows identify as Black/African American and 53% identify as women or non-conforming.

Revenue is generated through three streams: enterprise partnership fees from VC firms, grants and programmatic support from foundations (including MacArthur, MetLife, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Target, and Google For Startups), and minimal tuition for the Venture Access Program offset by corporate-funded scholarships. In 2026, HBCUvc became an independent 501(c)(3) after spinning out from its fiscal sponsor, coinciding with a deliberate 2025 strategic refocus that reduced the team to its smallest size since 2019 and the cohort to ten fellows. The organization is concurrently developing a platform to activate the estimated $50M+ in undeployed capital within HBCU alumni networks—a shift from program delivery toward infrastructure for coordinated community angel investing.

Name

HBCU.vc

Legal name

HBCUvc, Inc.

Website

https://hbcu.vc

Company type

Private

Founded year

2017

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

HBCUvc is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that expands access to venture capital for HBCU communities through VC fellowships, paid internship placements at partner VC firms, startup education programs, and coordinated angel investing initiatives for accredited alumni investors.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Program Fees from VC Firm Partners: VC firms pay program fees to host summer associates/interns through the VC Fellowship. Fees vary by firm size with a minimum of $2,500. Firms also pay minimum internship salaries of $14,000 for the 10-week program period. This covers candidate recruitment, screening, curriculum access, alumni-led coaching, and summer support.
2. Foundation and Institutional Funding: Grants and programmatic support from foundations including MacArthur Foundation, Target, MetLife Foundation, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Google For Startups, and others. HBCUvc is a 501(c)(3) private operating foundation (EIN: 33-1681736) that operates programs directly rather than making grants.
3. Educational Program Tuition: The Venture Access Program: Graduate Track charges minimal tuition with corporate-funded scholarships available to ensure cost is not a barrier. Courses on Thinkific platform include Startup Toolkit and Getting Started with Angel Investing courses.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion4 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

HBCUvc runs educational fellowship and accelerator programs that train HBCU students and alumni in venture capital and angel investing while coordinating capital deployment to Black and brown founders. Core paid offerings include the Venture Access Program: Graduate Track (VC training fellowship), Startup School: Pathways to Wealth (immersive wealth-building workshop), and self-paced online courses on venture and angel investing. Programs are delivered through virtual cohorts, in-person summits, and partner VC firm internship placements.

Product overview

HBCUvc operates as a platform-plus-program model centered on expanding HBCU alumni participation in venture capital and angel investing. The core offerings include the Venture Access Program: Graduate Track (a virtual VC training fellowship), Startup School: Pathways to Wealth (an in-person immersive wealth-building workshop), and online educational courses via Thinkific. The organization also publishes annual impact reports tracking alumni investing activity and organizational outcomes. Programs are designed to build pathways from student education through professional placement in venture firms.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Venture Access Program: Graduate Track (formerly VC Fellowship) A 6–8 week virtual cohort-based program for graduate students providing practical venture capital training, deal simulations, case studies, and connections to a talent pool for internship opportunities with partner VC firms.
• Startup School: Pathways to Wealth

Quantifiable outcome

• $10M+ in capital influenced for Black founders through alumni participation in investment decisions
• +5 more outcomes

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators14 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• BLCK VC: BLCK VC is a nonprofit organization focused on increasing the number of Black investors in venture capital — a near-direct peer given HBCU.vc's mission to expand Black investor participation and place diverse talent in VC firms.
• Goodie Nation: Goodie Nation is a nonprofit accelerator and community platform that supports underestimated tech founders and connects them to capital, mentors, and talent — directly comparable to HBCU.vc's nonprofit, community-led model for expanding venture access for Black and Latinx founders.
• All Raise: All Raise is a nonprofit community that supports women and non-binary founders and investors — comparable as a nonprofit building community, talent pipelines, and VC access for underrepresented groups in venture capital.
• VC Include: VC Include is a nonprofit organization building pathways for underrepresented talent into venture capital — directly comparable to HBCU.vc's fellowship and internship placement programs serving diverse VC candidates.

Emerging players

• Fearless Fund: Fearless Fund is a venture fund providing capital to women of color founders and is an HBCU.vc partner host firm — comparable as an emerging manager deploying capital to underrepresented founders, with a similar mission lens though for-profit structure.
• Base Ventures: Base Ventures is an early-stage fund investing in underestimated founders and an HBCU.vc host firm partner — overlapping on Black and diverse founder mission though operating as a traditional for-profit fund.
• Collab Capital: Collab Capital is an early-stage venture fund investing in Black founders and is an HBCU.vc host firm partner — overlapping in ecosystem partners and target founder base while operating as a for-profit fund.
• Black Tech Nation Ventures: Black Tech Nation Ventures is an early-stage fund backing Black founders, particularly in Pittsburgh and nationally, and is part of HBCU.vc's host firm network — comparable as an ecosystem player expanding Black participation in venture.
• BBG Ventures: BBG Ventures is an early-stage fund backing female and diverse founders and is an HBCU.vc ecosystem partner — comparable mission targeting underrepresented founders with active engagement in HBCU.vc programming.

Broad incumbents

• Andreessen Horowitz (Cultural Leadership Fund): Andreessen Horowitz's Cultural Leadership Fund is a broad incumbent initiative to invest in Black-founded companies and is an HBCU.vc speaker/program partner — comparable as a large platform running DEI-focused investing programs, but operating at far larger scale and for-profit.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/hbcuvc
• Xx.com/hbcuvc
• Facebookfacebook.com/hbcuvcatnmsu

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds3 records

Investors2 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about HBCU.vc