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New financial platform designed to scale emerging BIPOC-owned companies names noted Latinx leader Nathalie Molina Niño to C-Suite
Known Holdings, a new financial platform designed to power the growth of the BIPOC-owned (Black, Indigenous and people of color) economy, has named Nathalie Molina Niño as its Chief Strategy Officer.
Known’s mission is to address the structural barriers in the financial system that keep BIPOC-owned businesses from growing to scale. That economy, representing a combined minority buying power of an estimated $3.9 trillion in the U.S. alone, would be among the five largest economies in the world. But Communities of color, which represent 70 percent of the global population, but control less than two percent of the world’s capital.
In order to elevate the New BIPOC Majority in the U.S. to wealth and ownership commensurate with its size, Known is targeting the financial industry. Although that industry is the source of many systemic inequities, it also home to the resources which, if properly deployed, can help rectify the racial wealth gap. By assembling a team of top leaders and thinkers in finance, Known can provide the funding, counsel, technology, and back-office support needed to grow BIPOC-owned asset management firms, businesses and investment funds to their rightful scale.
“Known is singularly focused on mechanisms for massive expansion,” said Molina Niño. “We’re here to grow BIPOC-owned firms to make them category leaders, and to grow them do it with a focus on the needs of BIPOC communities, such as climate, justice, and sustainable wealth creation.”
See related article: Known Holdings Appoints ESG Advocate Jim Casselberry as Chief Executive Officer
Together with some of the nation’s top leaders and thinkers in finance, Molina Niño co-founded Known to elevate the New BIPOC Majority in the U.S. to wealth and ownership commensurate with its size. Known is targeting the financial industry. acknowledging that the industry is the source of many systemic inequities, but based on the belief that financial resources, if properly deployed, can help rectify the racial wealth gap. As the c-suite comes together (last month Known appointed its CEO, Jim Casselberry), Known will be poised to provide the funding, counsel, technology, and back-office support needed to grow BIPOC-owned asset management firms, businesses and investment funds to their rightful scale.
Molina Niño is an investor (Builder Capitalist), author, educator and retired global tech entrepreneur. As an investor, sShe makes personal investments in startups out of her family office, 0³ 3, and prior to that via BRAVA Investments, where she served as CEO. She is the author of the 2018 book LEAPFROG, The New Revolution for Women Entrepreneurs (Penguin Random House, Tarcher Perigee), which Book Authority named one of the “Best CEO Books of All Time.”
As part of her work as a champion of women, communities of color and the planet, she co-founded the trade organization for Builder Capitalism, a long-view, alternative asset class to Venture Capital. Today, Molina Nino Niño serves as a Venture Partner at Connectivity Capital Partners, as an advisor for Goldman Sachs’ Launch with GS Black and Latinx Cohort, WOCstar Fund, FullCycle, Accion Opportunity Fund, Vote Run Lead, WE NYC (Women Entrepreneurs NYC) and HOPE (Hispanas Organized for Political Equality).
During her career in tech, Molina Nino Niño was involved in launching and growing a multinational business (with Lionbridge, NASDAQ: LIOX) into a $100 million operation in 30+ countries within six years, including the inception of their strategic relationship with Microsoft Bing. Molina Nino Niño launched her first tech startup at the age of twenty and is the co-founder of Entrepreneurs@Athena at the Athena Center for Leadership Studies of Barnard College at Columbia University. In 2015 she stepped in as CRO of PowerToFly, to help grow what is now the fastest growing online hiring platform for women in tech. She has advised organizations such as Disney, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, Accion Opportunity Fund, MTV, Mattel and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
In support of her efforts to make reproductive healthcare more accessible and affordable, she serves on the board of Cadence HealthOTC, the National Institute for Reproductive Health and The American Medical Association’s Center for Health Equity. In 2019, she was honored with Schneps’ inaugural Women of Wall Street Awards for her influence in banking and finance, and was named among People Magazine’s most powerful Latinas.