Yasmin Cruz Ferrine

BIOGRAPHY

Why a Tech Power Player? For expanding access to venture capital to overlooked communities in Boston and beyond.

Billions of dollars flow each year from venture capitalists to promising startups, but only a tiny fraction of that money ever gets to female, Black, or Latino and Latina entrepreneurs.

Yasmin Cruz Ferrine wants to change that, and transform the landscape of a venture capital industry that continues to bypass minority founders. With Justin Kang and Daniel Acheampong, she cofounded and serves as a general partner at Visible Hands, a Boston venture capital firm that backs tech startup founders from underrepresented communities.

“We know that inclusion improves innovation,” Cruz Ferrine says, “so Boston can’t afford to miss the perspectives and talents of those who have been pushed to the sidelines in the past.”

Since its inception in 2020, Visible Hands has helped more than 130 founders through its accelerator and fellowship programs — in partnership with tech giants such as Google and Amazon — and invested nearly $10 million. It has helped several local women- and minority-owned businesses get off the ground, including the restaurant management system Prepshift, which has worked with about a dozen restaurants so far to help them improve their culture and organizational health.

“Visible Hands empowered me to envision myself as the founder of something bigger and broader than a restaurant business,” says Irene Li, cofounder of Prepshift and the James Beard Award-winning chef and owner of Mei Mei Dumplings in South Boston. “Their team’s support and enthusiasm helped me navigate the uncertainty and anxiety of setting out to tackle the big problem I’m passionate about.”

In 2022, Visible Hands closed its first fund, garnering $10.5 million to invest in promising companies. Among its many programs, Visible Hands operates VHBOS, a 10-week Boston-based fellowship for early-stage entrepreneurs in partnership with the Barr Foundation, offering founders a $10,000 grant at the end of the program. As a member of Visible Hands’ three-person investment committee, Cruz focuses mainly on fintech and technology geared toward families.

Cruz Ferrine is active in the region’s startup community, working with the Boston chapter of the nonprofit All Raise, which helps female and non-binary founders, and sitting on the advisory board of the Mass Fintech Hub, a public-private partnership that aims to make the state a global leader in financial technology.

Prior to Visible Hands, Cruz Ferrine oversaw fund-raising for Deval Patrick’s TogetherFund PAC and his 2020 presidential campaign.

But now she’s focused on the future. The world is undergoing a “staggering digital transformation,” she says, especially with the advent of AI tools like ChatGPT. She wants to make sure that transformation includes everybody.