SVB’s Access to Innovation Program — Building a more diverse, equitable and accessible innovation economy for all
Greetings Startup Grind community!
I am Moraa Onyonka, and I’m a Corporate Development Manager in the Access to Innovation program at Silicon Valley Bank! We are thrilled to be sponsoring Startup Grind’s DEI Month during October 2021!
SVB’s Access to Innovation program is laser-focused on increasing opportunities for underrepresented groups, especially Black, Latinx and women entrepreneurs, innovators, investors and leaders across the innovation economy.
We developed the Access to Innovation program to address the lack of inclusion and representation that exists for many communities of color within the innovation economy. Simply put, we feel we have a role to play in addressing these structural issues that create higher barriers to entry for underrepresented founders — who may not have the inherent advantages that often help others succeed currently in many technology industries.
At SVB, our mission is to build a more diverse, equitable and accessible innovation economy for all. And we are achieving this goal through programs such as Access to Innovation, by arming the next generation of Black, Latinx and women founders, professionals and emerging managers with the resources they need to build the next crop of the world’s most innovative companies.
We also recognize that the need for collective action to drive societal change has never been more pronounced and more urgent around the world. While there is still much work ahead of us, we’ve begun the process of building alliances and partnerships with companies who share our vision of greater inclusivity and access to opportunities.
By working with partners such as Valence, theBoardlist, Pathstream and Year Up, we are building resources to fill the gaps in the innovation economy faced by many women, Black and Latinx entrepreneurs. We are harnessing the collective power and expertise of SVB, within our strategic partnerships and across the broader ecosystem, to invest in and create programs that lead to systemic, meaningful and lasting change.
I invite you to discover the great work we are doing with some of our partners. For example, we have curated a webinar series called BOOSTXL in partnership with Valence to educate and highlight the creative paths that others have taken to achieve success. There’s so much to learn in each webinar of this series!
We are just scratching the surface on the impact we hope to make and there’s still a lot to accomplish. I hope you will join us!
To get involved or learn more:
- Visit our Access to Innovation site on SVB.com
- Connect with me on Linkedin!
- Send us an email to subscribe to our newsletter: AccesstoInnovation@svb.com
