Native-led Relevance Ventures VC firm seeks investment opportunities in Indian Country

By Mark Sanchez, Tribal Business Journal

A Tennessee venture capital firm wants to begin doing deals in Indian Country and provide early stage funding to Native American founders behind startup companies.

Relevance Ventures, which invests in financial technology and health and wellness companies, unfolded a strategy in early 2021 to further diversify investments.

As the venture capital industry puts a greater emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion, and with the issue high in the public consciousness, the partners at the Brentwood, Tenn.-based Relevance Ventures looked at their portfolio companies and found that roughly 25 percent to 30 percent were founded either by a female or person of color. None of the companies Relevance Ventures backs was founded by a Native American, nor did any have Native Americans on their boards of directors.

That led brothers Cameron Newton and Dean Newton, who lead the venture capital firm and are both members of the Patawomeck Indian Tribe of Virginia, to start asking questions.

"We asked ourselves, both being Native Americans: Why is that? And is there something wrong with our funnel where we're picking up a lot of stuff, but somehow Native Americans are weirdly being left out? Is it because they don't know we exist? What's the problem?" said Cameron Newton, investment manager, and founding member and managing partner of Relevance Ventures.

"We should be seeing a pipeline (of prospective investment targets) from Native founders," he told Tribal Business News. "To the extent that we're not seeing it, or maybe they're not getting the introduction and access that they need, we can help solve that."