Today, Pow Wow Pitch, North America’s premier pitch competition for emerging Indigenous entrepreneurs, announced a partnership with Raven Indigenous Capital Partners to support early-stage Indigenous-owned businesses access growth and impact investment opportunities.

Pow Wow Pitch is uniting and rallying a trusted ecosystem of partners around Indigenous entrepreneurs to accelerate access to the support and resources. 

Both Indigenous-led organizations, Pow Wow Pitch and Raven Indigenous Capital Partners, honour the Seven Sacred Teachings, operate from the perspective of an Indigenous worldview, follow traditional Indigenous protocols, work for the wellbeing of people and the planet, and acknowledge shared responsibility to the next generations.

“As the Indigenous entrepreneurship ecosystem matures, it is important to build and maintain linkages with trusted partners to support the ongoing growth of Indigenous-owned business beyond start-up,” said Sunshine Tenasco, Founder of Pow Wow Pitch. “Our partnership with Raven will help us connect Pow Wow Pitch entrepreneurs with purpose-driven and culturally grounded seed and growth capital.” 

Raven’s Indigenous Impact Fund of $25M invests in innovative, scalable, purpose-driven Indigenous-led and Indigenous-owned enterprises, with a target investment size of $250K to $2M. As part of its first cohort, CheekBone Beauty, founded by Pow Wow Pitch Alumni and Advisory Council Member Jennifer Harper, is one of Raven’s current portfolio companies.

“Our vision for this partnership is to support more businesses like Cheekbone Beauty to move from a start-up with Pow Wow Pitch to scale up with Raven Indigenous Capital Partners,” said Tenasco.

“As entrepreneurs grow their businesses, our challenges and needs change. And for Indigenous entrepreneurs, sometimes the type of support we need can be very specific,” said Jennifer Harper, CEO of Cheekbone Beauty. “As a Pow Wow Pitch Alumni and a current part of the Raven Indigenous Capital Partners portfolio, I love that these Indigenous-led organizations are working together to help support Indigenous entrepreneurs from seed to scale.”

 The partnership between Raven Capital and Pow Wow Pitch involves education on accessing growth capital, engaging its employees as mentors, adjudicating the pitch competition, and contributing prize dollars for winning entrepreneurs. 

“We’re thrilled to be in partnership with Pow Wow Pitch,” said Jeffrey Cyr, Managing Partner of Raven Indigenous Capital Partners. “Our relationship will allow emerging Indigenous entrepreneurs to access the right support at the right time from organizations they trust. We are hopeful that this nascent support network will help Indigenous entrepreneurs achieve the success and impact we know they’re capable of.”   

To learn more about the partnership between Pow Wow Pitch and Raven Indigenous Capital Partners, visit powwowpitch.org/raven-capital-partners.

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