As the discussion of deplorable diversity numbers across the tech world continues, it’s also important to remember that venture capital dollars, following suit, make their way into the hands of less than 1% of minority or women-led startups.

But a growing group of African American women are spearheading values-driven investment capital and identifying smart business opportunities that challenge unconscious bias and bring capital to overlooked and underfunded companies. These investors have set out to change the culture of what it means to invest in diverse talent building platforms that will impact the world. To put the significance of these black female investors into perspective, the odds of their existence in the world of venture capital funding is staggering. An analysis of diversity demographics at the top 71 venture capital firms–which represent more than $160 billion in assets–revealed that 92% of the senior investment team are made up of men; less than 1% are black.

Replicating tried-and-true approaches are not always ideal, and many founders, according to the investors, fall into this trap; funding products that are familiar to them. This approach can leave little room for true innovation and creative thinking.

Mandela Schumacher-Hodge

“The mostly white, male ‘bro’ culture in Silicon Valley has persisted for far too long, and it’s had a significant influence on the type of technology that gets created,” says Mandela Schumacher-Hodge, the portfolio services director at Kapor Capital. “What tech lacks right now is the breadth of diversity that reflects the demographics of America. That omission of experience from the product developmental cycle can really bias the usefulness of technology toward one group.”

There are enormous untapped opportunities in the startup for products and services that cater to the 80% of the U.S. population that is a person of color, female, or both. Multi-ethnic consumers in the U.S. boast a combined buying power of $3.4 trillion, a number that’s anticipated to increase exponentially over the next five years.

Diane Henry, an angel investor, also highlights the undue pressure for diverse founders to be the exemplary minority startup, which ultimately interferes with the most important elements of startup success: taking risks and making frequent mistakes in order to learn faster and ultimately win bigger. Instead, minority founders can get caught up in representing the “diversity thing” and the anxiety of not screwing up. The unwritten rule for these founders that do make it into the startup ecosystem is that there is no room for public failure, or they risk access to additional funding, or worse–thwart opportunities for those coming behind them.

“When a female or minority startup leader breaks through and achieves traction and funding, too often the media conversation centers on the fact of their being a woman or a minority rather than their ideas and what they are building,” says Henry.