Fostering inclusion and innovation, and positively impacting communities.

If you have a venture capital fund, venture studio, accelerator, or incubator that is committed to investing in underrepresented startup founders, we invite you to express interest in a potential investment from Amazon Catalytic Capital here. Please do not include any information that you consider confidential or proprietary. If there’s a good fit with what we’re looking for, we will get in touch.

We evaluate funds, accelerators, incubators, and venture studios based on strength and perspective of the investment team (e.g., investment acumen, portfolio construction view, judgment on deals, fund governance); differentiated sourcing channels, deal flow, and due diligence process (e.g., sourcing networks, access to subject matter experts in the due diligence process); differentiated post-investment value-add for portfolio companies (e.g., operational advice, customer introductions, assistance with strategic conversations, follow-on investment syndicate building); historic investment in and/or pipeline of underrepresented founder-led startups (e.g., historic track record, signs of sourcing networks that ensure long-term investment in underrepresented founders); historic investment track record (if available) (e.g., track record of company advising / mentorship can be a proxy); and thematic alignment with and eagerness to partner with Amazon.

To drive change that both scales and sustains, we seek to support our portfolio funds and underlying portfolio companies with capital, Amazon executive mentorship, access to potential partnerships and product integrations with Amazon, technical support, and scaling resources

We seek VC funds, accelerators, incubators, and venture studios that invest significantly in startups led by founders who self-identify as women, Black, Latino/a/x, Indigenous, LGBTQIA+, and/or people with disabilities.

We host the AWS Impact Accelerator, investing $30 million in a series of programs designed to help high-potential, pre-seed startups led by underrepresented founders succeed. We have also committed $150 million to the Black Business Accelerator, an initiative to help Black business owners succeed as sellers in Amazon’s store. Additionally, Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund has committed $53 million to invest in innovations by female climate tech entrepreneurs. In collaboration with Harvard Innovation Labs, AWS recently ran the NextGen Accelerator for startup founders currently attending historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and universities in Sub-Saharan Africa. AWS also runs the AWS-NAIC Investor Connection Program to strengthen connectivity between underrepresented founders and diverse-led VC investors within the National Association of Investment Companies (NAIC) membership and beyond.