September 28th, 2022

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Fifth Star Funds is thrilled to announce we received the Black Women Impact Grant from Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women. Launched in partnership to support Black women-led organizations, One Million Black Women is the largest commitment of its kind in size and scope to drive investment in housing, healthcare, access to capital, education, job creation and workforce advancement, digital connectivity, and financial health to narrow the dual opportunity gap faced by Black women due to gender and racial inequity.

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“The same systems responsible for the wealth gap in America contribute directly to the lack of access to capital that Black entrepreneurs, and especially Black women entrepreneurs, face on a routine basis. We created Fifth Star Funds to address these challenges and the wealth gap by getting capital in the hands of highly qualified yet underfunded Black entrepreneurs.” 

Stella Ashaolu, Co-Founder of Fifth Star Funds and CEO of WeSolv

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The Fifth Star Funds mission of helping provide early stage funding to Black entrepreneurs is in direct alignment with the Goldman Sachs Black Womenomics independent conducted research, which cites limited access to capital as one of the largest barriers for Black women starting businesses and organizations. Fifth Star Funds is seeking to invest 50% of its fund into Black women-led startups in the tech ecosystem. Barbara Kuofie, Founder of CulturePilot, an image recognition app that allows museum visitors to learn more about what they’re looking at, had great things to say about Fifth Star and their mission:

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“Fifth Star Funds provided my company its first investment check and has been incredibly supportive in my business and fundraising journey. I’m excited that the One Million Black Women Program can help support Fifth Star Funds in giving more Black women in Chicago like me an opportunity to scale their businesses.”

Barbara Kuofie, Co-Founder of CulturePilot

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With this philanthropic investment, Fifth Star Funds will have access to unrestricted, multi-year funding to invest in Black-led start-ups in Chicago to increase the number of Black women in tech and increase the number of Black tech founders with a successful exit of their company.

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We look forward to our partnership with Goldman Sachs to advance our shared mission to improve the lives of Black women everywhere.

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