ATLANTA – Collab Capital, a Black-owned venture capital firm, announced Wednesday the closing of its second fund at $75 million, a significant milestone that brings its total assets under management to $125 million. The firm, led by co-founders Jewel Burks Solomon and Barry Givens, will use the new capital to invest in early-stage companies building solutions for work, healthcare, and community infrastructure.
The achievement is particularly noteworthy in a landscape where Black fund managers receive less than 1% of total venture capital allocated annually.
“Fund I showed us what’s possible when you back the right people with the right support,” said Jewel Burks Solomon, co-founder and managing partner. “Fund II is about scaling that belief and deepening our conviction that proximity is power and that founders closest to the problem are best positioned to solve it. We’re investing in the infrastructure of an inclusive economy, where real solutions generate real returns for our communities and for our investors.”
Founded in 2019, Collab Capital focuses on providing capital and resources to founders who have firsthand experience with the problems their companies aim to solve. Both Burks Solomon and Givens are former startup founders themselves. Burks Solomon founded the visual search technology company Partpic, which was acquired by Amazon in 2016. Givens founded the hardware tech company Monsieur in 2012.
With Fund II, the firm plans to make Seed and Series A investments of $1 million to $2 million into approximately 30 companies over the next five years. Forty percent of the fund is reserved for follow-on investments into its highest-performing portfolio companies.
“We believe this is the time to lean in, not pull back,” said Barry Givens. “Our investment partners understand that alpha lives where others aren’t looking. Fund II is designed to be a flywheel—where early investment, deep founder support, and long-term partnership build momentum and multiply outcomes. Jewel and I built Collab to be the firm we wish we had when we were starting out. The impact extends far beyond the companies themselves. It creates jobs, economic mobility, and generational wealth.”
