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Plexo Capital raises $43 million to back minority-led VC funds

Illustration: Lazaro Gamio / Axios

Plexo Capital, founded by former Google Ventures partner Lo Toney to back early-stage VC funds led by women and underrepresented minorities, raised $42.5 million for its debut fund.

Why it matters: Despite many superficial displays of support for greater diversity among investor ranks, it's still tough VCs from underrepresented groups to raise funds.

  • "We look for any ways to be as flexible as possible to evaluate people's track records," Toney tells Axios.
  • This includes everything from track records working at a large firm, to angel investments, to putting together syndicates as some prospective managers many may not have enough personal wealth to cut personal checks.

The details: Plexo's investors include Alphabet, Intel Capital, Cisco Investments, the Royal Bank of Canada, Kapor Capital, the Hampton University Endowment, and the Ford Foundation. So far, it's backed 19 funds, including Base10 Ventures, Boom Capital, Female Founders Fund, MaC Ventures, Kindred Ventures, and Ulu Ventures. It's also made 14 direct investments into some of its funds' portfolio companies.

Go deeper: The (slowly) changing face of VC's next generation

Go deeper

Caitlin Owens
19 mins ago - Health

Prior coronavirus infections may not protect well against Omicron

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

New data from South Africa suggests the Omicron variant spreads more than twice as quickly as the Delta variant, and that immunity from prior infection doesn't appear to protect a person very well against Omicron variant.

Why it matters: The findings are extremely preliminary, and there are still many open questions about how well vaccines work against the variant. But these initial breadcrumbs of data are helping the world begin to understand what it's up against.

Go deeper (1 min. read)Arrow
Bryan Walsh, author of Future
52 mins ago - Technology

AI could end foreign-language subtitles

Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios

AI companies are developing methods to translate and synthesize voices in ads, movies and TV.

Why it matters: The advances in voice synthesis could help fix bad movie dubbing — and they come as international content is becoming increasingly important to studios and streaming platforms as part of the globalization of entertainment.

Go deeper (2 min. read)Arrow
Bryan Walsh, author of Future
Updated 10 hours ago - Technology

A dark view of the future of autonomous weapons

A still from the video "If Human: Kill ( )." Image: Future of Life Institute

A new short film warns of the coming risks posed by the development and proliferation of lethal autonomous weapons.

Why it matters: Drones with the ability to autonomously target and kill without the assistance of a human operator are reportedly already being used on battlefields, and time is running out to craft a global ban of what could be a destabilizing and terrifying new class of weapon.

Go deeper (1 min. read)Arrow