MassMutual backs The 22 Fund

The 22 Fund, a Los Angeles-based impact, early-growth fund, has secured a $5 million catalytic investment from MassMutual .

The 22 Fund provides capital to technology-based, export-oriented manufacturing firms led by women and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) entrepreneurs that are often left out of tech capital opportunities. Its mission is to help create clean, high-wage jobs and economic prosperity to low- and moderate-income communities through its strategic investments into growing women- and BIPOC-founded companies. Its focus on U.S. high-tech manufacturing companies that have the potential for fast growth and high profitability through international sales (exports) is a first of its kind strategy that offers portfolio diversification to investors looking for real impact without concessions within the high-performing private equity asset class.

MassMutual’s investment in The 22 Fund is made through a $50 million commitment that MassMutual calls the “First Fund Initiative,” an effort to invest catalytic capital in Black, Latinx and Indigenous emerging managers of private equity funds to advance racial equity.