DivInc Joins Forces with Mercury Fund

We’re excited to announce this incredible opportunity and partnership with Mercury Fund, an early-stage venture capital firm headquartered in Houston, Texas! This partnership will help DivInc empower and educate underrepresented entrepreneurs by lending Mercury's expertise through mentoring, guidance, and workshops to entrepreneurs that participate in DivInc's accelerator program. Additionally, Mercury will provide financial support for our organization and programs.

For each member company, DivInc provides over $100K value in entrepreneur education and support programming, hundreds of hours of executive mentorship, and life-time access to its community and network, all at no cost to founders. 

"We are excited to establish a mutually beneficial long-term partnership with Mercury with the goal of accelerating equitable access to resources and opportunities, enhance economic mobility, and drive social impact across the startup and venture capital ecosystem in the city of Houston and beyond. Collaborative partnerships like this are essential to generating inclusive innovation,"  

- Preston L. James II, CEO of DivInc

DivInc works to build a strong pipeline of tech startup companies founded by underrepresented entrepreneurs. With the support of JPMorgan Chase, Verizon and The Ion, we recently expanded our presence to Houston with the goal of helping hundreds more startup founders who are people of color grow their own companies - creating jobs and greatly expanding wealth generation opportunities. For each member company that participates in our accelerator program, DivInc provides entrepreneur education and support programming, hundreds of hours of executive mentorship, and life-time access to its unique culture, community and network, all at no cost to founders. With a partnership through Verizon, each participating company of our spring 2021 cohort will receive $10K in non-dilutive grant funding.

Heath Butler, Managing Director at Mercury says, "At Mercury, we believe there is significant untapped talent and resources in the urban communities of Houston and we are committed to playing a role in helping minority entrepreneurs gain the access, knowledge, and resources they need for a successful entrepreneurial journey. Through DivInc, we have direct access to this untapped talent and strongly believe there is a huge economic ROI in investing and empowering these entrepreneurs."

"This unprecedented partnership shows a commitment to the impact we plan to make in the Houston tech ecosystem. We know that together we will empower underrepresented founders, provide visibility to those founders in the current venture capital blind spot, and unlock untapped returns for investors""

- Ashley DeWalt, Managing Director at DivInc Houston.

"We are excited for the opportunity for Mercury, along with our Houston community and business partners, to galvanize and rally around this effort in building up Houston's underestimated entrepreneurial ecosystem through the DivInc capital campaign," says Blair Garrou, co-founder and Managing Director at Mercury. "Mercury is committing to funding ten percent of the capital campaign and looks forward to activating our networks to help raise the rest. We feel it is our business and civic responsibility to contribute to the creation of DivInc's essential programming in supporting and funding Houston's next wave of successful entrepreneurs."

Read the article in the Houston Business Journal.

Read the full press release.

For Media and Partner Questions, Contact: 

Ashley DeWalt
Managing Director
Ashley@DivInc.org