Marcus Whitney

JUMPSTART Health Investors, whose principals have been among the pioneers of modern Nashville entrepreneurship and venture investing, have raised more than $18.7MM toward their $30MM goal for Jumpstart Nova Fund I, which may be the first Black healthcare venture fund in America.

Jumpstart Co-founders Marcus Whitney and Vic Gatto are on today's filing with the SEC.

Their Jumpstart Foundry has previously invested in more than 100 seed-stage companies in about 30 states. JHI's newer Jumpstart Capital has also made its mark.

The Nova fund's emphasis will be on businesses led by Black men and women founders and other Black team members who hold substantial equity in their startup or early-growth businesses.

As the new fund has come to fruit, Whitney has publicly addressed issues of inequities of Black access to wealth-formation resources and startup and venture capital. One example is here.

Nova Fund I targets are expected to span:

• Health IT
• Digital health
• Tech-enabled services
• Diagnostic devices
• Medical device manufacturing
• Consumer health and wellness

Both Whitney and Gatto, two men who relocated to Nashville decades ago from the Northeast, have in different ways been mold-breakers on the Nashville entrepreneurial scene, particularly during the past decade.

Read more on 45-year-old Whitney here and on Gatto, 50, here. VNC

. last edited 1705 1 April 2021