Comcast Ventures, the venture capital affiliate of Comcast Corp., announced that NBA player Andre Iguodala has joined its Catalyst Fund as a venture partner.
The Catalyst Fund is focusing on investing in founders from diverse backgrounds. Iguodala joins Principal Fatima Husain at the Catalyst Fund and will focus investments in companies founded by African American, Latinx, and female entrepreneurs.
“I am excited to join the Catalyst and Comcast Ventures teams, which will provide me with the opportunity to advise and work with emerging entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds,” said Iguodala in a written statement.
“I have admired Comcast NBCUniversal’s commitment to invest in startups with founders who are typically underrepresented in the venture world. Together, we have unique experiences and resources no other venture firm has to help founders grow their companies.”
Comcast Ventures’ Catalyst Fund was launched in 2011 and has supported more than 70 startups with founders from diverse backgrounds through direct investments and in partnership with leading accelerator programs.
“We are thrilled to welcome Andre to the Comcast Ventures team,“ said Amy Banse, Comcast Ventures’ head of Funds and managing director. “Andre’s investment experience and network, coupled with his passion for supporting entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds, is a perfect fit for our Catalyst Fund.”
“Together, we can offer early-stage companies unique resources for growth, building on our vision of a startup ecosystem full of founders creating technologies for a diverse world.”
Iguodala, who was just recently traded from the Memphis Grizzlies to the Miami Heat after winning three NBA championships with the Golden State Warriors, is also first vice president of the National Basketball Players Association. He is a New York Times best-selling author with his book, The Sixth Man, and also a successful entrepreneur and startup investor, funding more than 40 companies including Zoom, Datadog, PagerDuty, and Allbirds. As an investor and a member of the board of directors for Jumia Technologies, Iguodala helped the company grow and go public in April 2019 with a billion-dollar IPO. He also serves as a board adviser at enterprise software company Zuora.
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