(New York, NY)—On Juneteenth, Known, a finance and asset management firm, announced its new partnership with Blk Grvty, to lead the establishment of their innovation lab, where philanthropy will be used as a tool to experiment with new, future-proof capital models.
Blk Grvty is a research and innovation enterprise working to create a world where Black people and others from the New Majority in the US are wealthy and well. Known manages, structures and deploys capital with and for large asset owners committed to investing with a racial, social, and environmental lens.
Under the leadership of co-founders Dr. JaNay Queen Nazaire, its Chief Executive Officer, and Chipo Sachirarwe, its Chief Operating Officer, Blk Grvty has advised companies on Black wealth creation, explored new models in capital deployment, and conducted research towards normalizing Black and other New Majority wealth and wellbeing. The organization draws from a community of influential players in the finance industry. Their clients and funders include some of the world’s largest corporations and foundations that are innovating within the issues most impacting communities of color.
To commemorate the announcement of the partnership, Blk Grvty, A Known Lab, will be making a $100,000 grant to Monique Woodard, the Founder and Managing Director of Cake Ventures—a venture capital fund focused on investing in demographic change and the companies building for tomorrow’s internet users.
“We always knew that having a philanthropic strategy would be important for our work at Known, but we wanted it to be driven by alternative models,” said Jim Casselberry, CEO of Known Holdings. “We wanted our philanthropic strategy to build new systems to fuel the changes so deeply needed in finance. In Blk Grvty we’ve found innovators ideally suited to lead this vision for us. We’re delighted to welcome JaNay and Chipo, and we can’t wait to see the results we’ll achieve as we grow together.”
“From the beginnings of Known and Blk Grvty, our paths have increasingly intersected,” said Dr. Nazaire. “We can’t wait to scale together and to do it in our own way, starting by replacing self-congratulatory celebrations with a grant to support a visionary investor who is working to fund companies that reflect our nation’s changing demographics.”
“At a time when all we seem to hear about is struggles and gaps, I’m delighted that Blk Grvty is focused on the opportunities,” Woodard said. “It means a lot to see their vote of confidence in what I’m building comes in the form of something I can put into action directly with the founders I support.”
