Follow-on capital Venture 313 founders have unlocked so far
Detroit just doubled down on its founders. The Gilbert Family Foundation added 6.4 million dollars to Venture 313, the coalition backing the city's Black and underrepresented tech builders, extending a bet it first made in 2022 with a three-year, 10 million dollar commitment.
Venture 313 is not one program, it is three working together. TechTown Detroit writes non-dilutive grants up to 15,000 dollars, ID Ventures invests equity up to 250,000, and the Detroit Development Fund lends up to 250,000, plus coaching and connections on top. A founder can walk in at an idea and walk out with capital that fits the stage they are actually at.
"The barrier for these founders was never the idea. It was the check. Detroit keeps writing it."
The receipts back it up. Since launching, Venture 313 has supported more than 125 businesses, helped them tap 62 million dollars in additional capital, and created more than 50 jobs. That track record is why it is now considered one of the largest city-focused efforts in the country aimed at closing the funding gap for Black founders.
National numbers make the local work matter more. Black founders still raise a fraction of a percent of US venture dollars, and the gap has barely moved. A city fund that hands real money and real relationships to the founders the system overlooks is not charity, it is Detroit refusing to let its talent leak out for lack of a yes.
This is exactly the infrastructure ANF exists to spotlight. Talent has never been Detroit's problem. Access to capital has. Venture 313 is the city building the door its founders were told to find somewhere else.
The money follows the belief. Detroit just showed it believes.