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ImpactAlpha, October 7 — Media conglomerate Hearst launched Level Up Ventures to make cash investments in pre-seed and seed rounds for Black- and Latin-led tech businesses.
The venture arm is meant to complement the company’s HearstLab, which is focused on women-led startups in the fintech, data analytics, health, transportation, enterprise tech and media sectors.
HearstLab and Level Up present an opportunity “to scale and sustain women and diversity-founded startups with capital and strategic support,” said Hearst’s Eve Burton.
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Hearst’s Carlton Charles will lead Level Up Ventures. The fund’s first investment is in Options MD, a Black woman-led healthtech startup helping create free personalized treatments for people with depression and other treatment-resistant illnesses.
Following the murder of George Floyd, the share of Black Americans screening positive for anxiety and depression jumped from 36% to 41%.
