Atlanta, Georgia Local News
Georgia state Rep. Dar’shun Kendrick champions diversity and access to investment capital
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During a typical day during the legislative session, Georgia State Representative Dar’shun Kendrick is usually walking around the House Chamber as she speaks to different lawmakers. It doesn’t matter if they’re from Elberton or East Atlanta. Decatur or Dacula. Kendrick, a Democrat from Lithonia, will speak to anyone in order to build consensus in order to get bills passed.
Last week, Kendrick qualified to run for House District 95, an area that includes portions of Lithonia, eastern Dekalb, southern Gwinnett, and western Rockdale counties. After the 12:00PM deadline on March 8th, Kendrick found out she would not have an opponent in the upcoming 2024 elections. Before she embarks on her eighth term in the Georgia House, the financial securities attorney would sit for an interview with The Atlanta Voice, from her legislative office.
“We’re only down here for 40 days, even though it’s not consecutive, it goes by really fast,” explained Kendrick. “So it’s almost like the time period, which we’re down here, forces you to be fearless because you don’t have all day. And I think I’ve developed some really good relationships. I try to control the things I can control. It gives me such peace.”
Kendrick has championed access to reproductive care and abortion rights, is on the forefront of the tech revolution while fighting against book bans. She also encourages concerned citizens to get more involved in the political process.
In 2017, Kendrick started her law firm, the Kendrick Advisory & Advocacy Group (KAAG). Her firm specializes in corporate securities law. It also helps companies that are raising investor capital. Plus, KAAG is a resource that allows clients focused on growing their company by outsourcing the regulatory services to her firm. So, by definition, KAAG is a registered investment advisory firm. Kendrick possesses a Series 65 license, which means she is licensed to give investment advice in the state of Georgia.
Since then, the larger Republican party has leaned into the culture wars. Since the death of George Floyd, Conservatives have been attacking any form of diversity initiatives. Plus, their attacks on investment firms that fund historically disadvantaged groups have been unrelenting since the United States Supreme Court struck down Affirmative Action in 2023. For example, The Alliance for Equal Rights have characterized the purposes of the Fearless Fund and Hello Alice as “discriminatory” and “unlawful.”
Concurrently, there is a lack of commitment across corporations and universities to stand firm on the principles that they were talking about in 2020 because they’re now getting a little bit of a green light that they do not have to invest in DEI programs, if at all.
All the while, State Representative Kendrick, who is a licensed securities attorney, is well-equipped to not only withstand those attacks, but fight back. In 2023, Kendrick began advocating for the Fearless Fund. Black women received less than .39% in venture capital funding. And as a result, Conservatives are fighting Black women, Black families and minority-owned companies because we are receiving crumbs of the cookie.
Kendrick and the Invest Georgia Fund
During the 2024 Legislative Session, Kendrick had four bills that made it to committee hearings. One of them has passed out of the House. House Bill 1138 is legislation that would command the Invest Georgia Fund to consider companies that “Promote and reflect the demographic makeup of Georgia.”
“It’s just one line adding investment criteria to make sure that it reflects the demographic makeup of Georgia,” explains Kendrick. “The Invest Georgia Fund was a fund that was passed in 2013. Two years after I got here, we started funding it with the legislature through the state budget in 2015. It was $10 million over four years, which, if you know, anything about venture capital, $10 million, is nothing. But it was something. It was supposed to be a $100 million fund but ended up being $10 million.”
The Invest Georgia Fund is state funded. It also receives federal funds and treasury funds. Secondly, Invest Georgia does not directly invest into portfolio companies. It only invests in venture funds.
“So, the purpose of the fund was to be a fund of funds,” Kendrick added. “Essentially, it was a venture fund, a publicly-ran venture fund that would give to other venture funds that would then the end user would be Georgia companies, portfolio companies, as part of that particular venture fund.”
Georgia’s population is 33% African-American. Georgia has about 30,000 former Armed Service members. Also, half of Georgia’s population is made up of women. Kendrick says those characteristics are not quotas, because it’s part of sixteen other investment criteria.
According to the bill, the State of Georgia must include businesses that meet all the requirements that are going to give the necessary returns. If the companies are homogenous in any demographic, that’s an opportunity for Invest Georgia to step back and say, ‘does this reflect Georgia? Does that reflect the purpose of the bill, which was to give to Georgia businesses that are representative of every demographic makeup here in the state of Georgia?’
In the end, Kendrick desires to get rid of the Invest Georgia Fund’s current structure as it is known and allow the fund to do direct investments into companies, if the bills do pass. She is tired of our companies not having access to capital while indirectly paying for other people’s generational wealth.
“And I think that’s important and powerful in one line,” explains Kendrick. “It makes all the difference to send to the rural areas and to the state of Georgia that we care about every part of the state. From north to south, east to west, no matter what your background is, we want to consider that. When we’re giving out public funds, and I think this is important to note, because this is your taxpayer money, that’s my taxpayer money. So I want it to reflect how Georgia looks.”
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