Despite the strengths of the Silicon Valley technology environment, genuine diversity and inclusion remain significant challenges. A new company, Fundr, is dedicated to assisting investors in building more varied investment portfolios.

Fundr, an investment marketplace, was created by Lauren Washington, Boris Moyston, and Jean-Philippe Desmontils. While primarily designed for angel investors, the platform is also accessible to institutional venture capital firms, providing a means to thoroughly evaluate and perform due diligence on startups – a process that individual angels may lack the capacity to undertake independently.

Here is a description of how the system functions:

Startups submit applications to the platform and provide detailed quantitative information regarding their market, team, progress, and background. This data is then used to generate a Fundr score for each company. This score influences the amount of funding a company can secure and determines its eligibility for inclusion on the platform.

Fundr utilizes this information to construct diversified investment portfolios. Recently, the company announced its inaugural portfolio, comprising 15 startups selected from a pool of over 450 applications received from around the world.

Investors can contribute funds to this portfolio by writing a check, with the option to exclude specific companies from their investment or to prioritize their funding towards preferred startups. The company aims to secure $1.5 million, allocating $100,000 to each of the 15 companies, and intends to finalize fundraising for this portfolio on December 11.

Fundr indicates that there are over 13.6 million accredited investors, but only three percent are currently active in angel investing. Washington highlighted that the primary obstacles to angel investing are the demands on time, the need for resources, and limited access to promising startups. Furthermore, the company asserts that broad indexing at the seed stage typically yields returns exceeding those of individual investor selections by more than 90 percent over a ten-year period.

The first Fundr portfolio encompasses companies from ten different industries, including clean energy, artificial intelligence, blockchain technology, and financial technology. Fifty-six percent of the founders within the portfolio identify as people of color from underrepresented groups, and 44 percent are women. Notably, 75 percent of the founders are based outside of established technology centers such as Silicon Valley and New York City.

Washington stated that the company’s algorithm was tested during the Black Women Talk Tech international pitch competition earlier this year, and accurately predicted the eventual winner. It took a panel of experienced investors six hours to reach the same conclusion.

Fundr has been primarily self-funded, with the exception of $100,000 received through the Austin-based accelerator Sputnik ATX. The company plans to raise capital for its new portfolio before seeking additional funding for its own operations.

A complete listing of the startups included in Fundr’s portfolio can be found here.