Black Tech Nation Ventures (BTN.vc) Research
Investment Thesis
Black Tech Nation Ventures (BTN.vc) is an early-stage venture fund backing diverse-led startups, with a specific focus on Black and diverse founders and founding teams. The firm's thesis is that the next generation of category-defining technology companies will be built by founders who have historically been locked out of institutional venture capital, and that closing that access gap is both a moral imperative and a return-generating opportunity. BTN.vc is the investment arm of the broader Black Tech Nation ecosystem, a Pittsburgh-founded nonprofit community for Black technologists launched in 2017. The fund combines financial capital with intellectual capital (operator-partners) and social capital (a national network of Black technologists, founders, and investors).
Stage Focus
BTN.vc invests primarily at Pre-Seed and Seed. The firm targets companies that are pre-revenue or early-revenue, typically in pilot with promising customers, raising their first institutional round, and showing 10x-100x growth potential with a credible path to roughly $1M in revenue within a year of the round. The firm occasionally follows on into Series A/B rounds for existing portfolio companies (e.g., Culina Health at Series A, Welcome Tech at Series B).
Check Size
Typical initial check size is $250,000 to $1,000,000. The fund reserves meaningful capital for follow-on investments in breakout portfolio companies rather than deploying it all on initial checks.
Lead Tendency
BTN.vc frequently leads or co-leads seed rounds for companies where it is the first institutional check, but also participates alongside other lead investors in later or larger rounds (e.g., participating, not leading, in Rosarium Health's 2026 seed round led by Kalos Ventures, and in Welcome Tech's Series C).
Recent Activity
The firm closed its $50M inaugural fund in February 2024, backed by LPs including Alphabet, Bank of America, and Mark Cuban. It expects to back 20-30 companies from this fund and has made roughly 19-20 investments to date. Most recently, BTN.vc participated in Rosarium Health's $6M seed round (announced May 2026, led by Kalos Ventures), a home-modifications and in-home care marketplace for aging and disabled populations. Other recent activity includes participation in Welcome Tech's Series C and a seed investment in Every Health.
Portfolio Highlights
Notable portfolio companies span fintech, healthtech, edtech, climate tech, and AI:
- EMTECH - central bank digital currency infrastructure
- Culina Health - telehealth nutrition therapy (Series A)
- Welcome Tech - essential services benefits platform for immigrants (Series B/C)
- Rosarium Health - home modification and in-home care marketplace for seniors, $6M seed (2026)
- Guaranteed and RubyWell - at-home hospice/caregiver support technology
- BrightUp and Hive Wealth - employee and community financial wellness
- WEIR AI - NIL (name, image, likeness) rights management platform
- Kloopify - supply chain cost tracking and sustainability
- The Folklore Group - African luxury goods wholesale marketplace
Team
- Kelauni Jasmyn - Founder & General Partner. Founded Black Tech Nation in 2017 after observing the absence of Black technologists in Pittsburgh's tech ecosystem; leads the fund's mission of building "Black Tech Unicorns."
- Sean Sebastian - General Partner. Brings operating and venture experience to sourcing and portfolio support.
- David Motley - General Partner. Strategic advisor with company-scaling experience.
- Maria Ferguson - Chief Financial Officer, manages fund operations and finance.
- Ehab Elhag - Investor, sourcing and supporting early-stage deals.
- Katelyn Perryman - Investor, portfolio support and deal sourcing.
Decision Process
BTN.vc operates as a General Partnership (three GPs: Jasmyn, Sebastian, Motley) with investment decisions made collectively, supported by an investment team. Typical seed-stage diligence-to-decision timelines run 2-4 weeks.
Founder Preferences
BTN.vc requires that portfolio companies be Black-led and/or have a strong diverse leadership team. Beyond that baseline, the fund favors technical, coachable founders building scalable, technology-reliant business models (SaaS, marketplaces, AI, fintech infrastructure) rather than consumer goods, hardware, regulated industries (pharma/medical devices), or real estate plays.
Geographic Focus
BTN.vc invests nationally across the United States, with deep roots and community presence in Pittsburgh, PA (its headquarters), and openness to international companies with a US business nexus on a case-by-case basis.
Ecosystem Role
Beyond capital, BTN.vc is embedded in the Black Tech Nation ecosystem: it founded the Black Fund Managers Forum (BFMF) in 2022, a network representing over $3B in Black-owned venture funds, and runs an annual "Black Tech Unicorns" conference along with ongoing founder meetups, mentorship, and workshops for its 2,500+ member technologist community.