MassMutual
First Fund

Investing outside the status quo

The First Fund Initiative is a $150m commitment by MassMutual to invest catalytic capital in Black, Latinx, and Indigenous led emerging managers. All the capital will be dedicated to venture capital and innovation finance funds with the purpose of advancing racial equity.

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About the First Fund

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Talent is equally distributed. Opportunity is not.

Let’s seed the diverse institutional VC funds of the future.

Less than 2% of capital is managed by diverse owned firms*. Impact Investing’s First Fund Initiative is a commitment from MassMutual to invest catalytic capital in Black, Latinx, and Indigenous emerging managers to advance capital equity. First Fund’s allocation strategy centers on funds that are systemically overlooked by financial institutions and have a differentiated investment thesis with the ability to generate positive social impact as well as risk-adjusted market rate financial returns.

Emerging Fund

Investing in pre-insitutional scale funds, with a fund size of $25-$250M

Intentional Capital

Pre-Seed through Series B Venture Funds, Revenue Based Financing or related venture debt strategies, lower-market PE strategies

Equitable Approach

1/3 Black, Latin X and/or Indigenous partners and founder

Geography

Focusing on funds based in the US and Canada with that geography as their primary investment focus

Powering progress

Equitable Participation

Although the First Fund Team applies a social impact lens to fund investments, qualifying funds need not have an explicit impact thesis or branding to be considered. Fund portfolios should be inclusive in practice or by mandate. We therefore center on funds with partner teams and portfolios that more accurately reflect the general population, with at least 1/3 Black, Latin X and/or Indigenous partners and founders.

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Rooted in finance. Built for impact.

First Fund investments are made from the General Investment Account with the same rigorous investment process as traditional investment strategies, seeking market rate financial performance in accordance with industry benchmarks for a given fund strategy. We apply an operational due diligence process in fund selection and apply a consultative approach to support emerging funds seeking move to the next stage of growth and partnership with institutional LPs.

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