Democratic presidential candidate, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a marketing campaign rally on the Georgia State Convocation Heart on July 30, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Elijah Nouvelage | AFP | Getty Photos
After Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, gained the vocal help of a slice of the tech investing world, a big group of enterprise capitalists got here collectively to again the opposite aspect.
Greater than 100 VCs on Wednesday pledged their help to Vice President Kamala Harris, the probably Democratic nominee, as she ramps up her marketing campaign to tackle Trump within the November election.
The group, calling itself VCs for Kamala, is made up of buyers and entrepreneurs from a spread of established and rising funds, and completely different demographic teams. It consists of Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and Dallas Mavericks minority proprietor Mark Cuban, together with Aileen Lee, founding father of Cowboy Ventures, and Rebecca Kaden, a associate at Union Sq. Ventures.
“We spend our days in search of, investing in and supporting entrepreneurs who’re constructing the long run,” the group mentioned in its pledge. “We’re pro-business, pro-American dream, pro-entrepreneurship and pro-technological progress. We additionally imagine in democracy because the spine of our nation. We imagine that sturdy, reliable establishments are a function, not a bug, and that our business – and each different business – would collapse with out them.”
The VCs for Kamala listing highlights a deepening political divide in Silicon Valley and the broader tech business. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been outspoken in supporting Trump, publicly endorsing him moments after the assassination try earlier this month, whereas VCs Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz just lately mentioned they’re backing Trump, arguing his insurance policies can be higher for “little tech.”
Musk additionally reportedly plans to contribute tens of millions to a pro-Trump PAC, referred to as America PAC, together with Sequoia Capital’s Shaun Maguire and 8VC’s Joe Lonsdale. Musk’s shut good friend and former PayPal colleague David Sacks, co-founder at Craft Ventures, additionally vociferously helps Trump and spoke on the Republican Nationwide Conference earlier this month.
Hoffman, a longtime Democratic donor and associate at enterprise agency Greylock, shared a hyperlink to the pro-Harris pledge on X, the social media website owned by Musk.
“Proud to signal the #vcsforkamala pledge,” Hoffman wrote. “It is an funding in our democratic future.”
Erika Lucas, Normal Accomplice at VEST Her Ventures, wrote on LinkedIn that there have been “quite a lot of girls, notably Black Ladies VCs,” behind the pledge, including “I am proud to serve and arrange with them as effectively our male colleagues. We perceive the task.”
The Democratic Nationwide Conference is scheduled to happen beginning Aug. 19, in Chicago.
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