A civil rights group is challenging the Florida Attorney General’s Office to be more “consistent” in its campaign against corporate “raced-based decision-making” by investigating venture capital firms that appear to avoid investments in minority-owned companies. 

Earlier this month, the nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) in Atlanta sent a letter to Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody to request a probe of race-based decision-making among venture capital funds in the state that seem to favor investing in “majority-white-owned businesses over businesses owned by people of other races.”  

The letter, authored by the SPLC’s chief legal officer, Derwyn Bunton, indicates that public financial information about companies such as Weatherford Capital, Krillion Ventures and Newgate Capital Partners seems to show the firms are supporting primarily white-led businesses, to the detriment of firms owned by people of color.