TPG, a global alternative asset firm with headquarters in Fort Worth and San Francisco, on March 18 announced the launch of a new initiative designed to seek out and back a new generation of diverse talent.
The newly branded initiative is called TPG NEXT, and has the goal to provide flexible growth capital and operating resources to seed, support, and scale diverse investors and entrepreneurs including women, people of color, and LGBTQ+.
TPG NEXT plans to reshape and expand the alternatives marketplace, introducing new and flexible avenues to strategic capital to develop, launch, and propel the next generation of diverse investors and entrepreneurs. Empowering a more diverse group to become capital allocators will help to increase investment into diverse-led businesses, creating a positive ripple effect across the industry, according to a TPG news release. .
“There is a self-selecting bias in the market that fundamentally disadvantages diverse talent. These structural dynamics will continue unless we push ourselves to step outside of our traditional circles and invest behind people, ideas, and networks that are different,” said Jon Winkelried, co-CEO of TPG. “Through TPG NEXT, we believe we can bring the right combination of capital, operating resources, and expertise to help expand the traditionally narrow path to success in our industry and create and scale a differentiated category of diverse investing.”
In conjunction with the launch of the initiative, TPG has announced a series of new investments and partnerships that, together with Harlem Capital, form the inaugural TPG NEXT portfolio.
Investments
TPG has partnered with LandSpire Group, a 100 percent Black-owned real estate firm based in Los Angeles focused on investment and development in secondary markets across the U.S. As part of the partnership, LandSpire co-founders Josh Childress and Justin Davis and internal legal counsel Treana Allen have formally joined TPG’s real estate team for the next year as TPG NEXT’s first Investors-in-Residence. Following a successful residency, TPG will make a strategic investment in LandSpire and its flagship fund, which is expected to launch in the first half of 2022.
TPG has made a strategic minority investment in VamosVentures, an early-stage venture firm based in Los Angeles that invests in companies led by diverse teams, with a special focus on the Latinx community. VamosVentures was founded in 2016 by investor and entrepreneur Marcos Gonzalez. The partnership will provide VamosVentures with access to additional working capital and operating resources to help grow and scale its business.
In 2019, TPG made a non-controlling strategic investment in Harlem Capital, a diversity-focused venture capital firm. The investment provided the firm with working capital and access to resources from across the TPG platform. Harlem Capital closed its inaugural fund in December of 2019 with more than $40 million in capital commitments.
Partnerships
In addition to its GP seed commitments, TPG has partnered with the National Association of Investment Companies (NAIC). Formed more than 50 years ago, the NAIC is known today as the largest network of diverse-owned alternative asset managers, with a membership base of more than 115 firms who collectively manage more than $200 billion in assets. The partnership will build on the organizations’ shared commitment to addressing the industry’s pipeline challenges through curated events, training, and other engagement opportunities.
Justin Nunez, a Business Unit Partner in TPG Public Equity Partners, and Liz Stiverson, a Principal and Chief of Staff in TPG’s Executive Office, will oversee the day-to-day management of the initiative in partnership with a group of executive sponsors, including Winkelried, Jim Coulter, Kelvin Davis, and Anilu Vazquez-Ubarri. TPG NEXT partners will have access to the firm’s complete ecosystem, including its investment professionals, business development and capital formation functions, and services teams.