Join us for a conversation with Lo Toney, Founding Managing Partner at Plexo Capital, where we’ll discuss his recent medium post, “I am a VC But Still a Black Man in America”.

After the death of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and countless others, there have been protests across the US and the world, calling for equal justice under the law and speaking out against racism in our institutions and interactions. Gross inequities exist across many realms, including in professional and personal settings. Lo shares his view on how individuals can use their platforms and voices to make a stand against racism.

Lo will also discuss how Plexo Capital, a $42.5M fund, has built an investment thesis around diverse founders and GPs—a strategy led by the ability to use alpha to generate above market returns.

 

 

Lo Toney

Lo is the Founding Managing Partner of Plexo Capital, which he incubated and spun out from GV (Google Ventures), based on a strategy to increase access to early-stage deal flow. Plexo Capital invests in emerging seed-stage VCs and invests directly into companies sourced from the portfolios of VCs where Plexo Capital has an investment. Investors in Plexo Capital include Alphabet (holding company of Google), Intel Capital, Cisco Investment, the Royal Bank of Canada, Kapor Capital, the Hampton University Endowment (Cambridge Associates client), the Ford Foundation, family offices, and technology executives.

Prior to founding Plexo Capital, Lo was a Partner on the investing team at GV, where he focused on marketplaces, mobile, and consumer products. Before GV, Lo was a Partner with Comcast Ventures, leading the Catalyst Fund and worked with the main fund focusing on mobile messaging marketplaces.

He also worked with Zynga as the GM of Zynga Poker with full P+L responsibility For Zynga’s largest franchise at the time. During his leadership, web bookings increased by over 150% with margin expansion. Lo has also held executive roles with Nike + eBay as a startup funded by top tier investors.

Lo received his M.B.A from the Haas School of Business (University of California at Berkeley), where he completed the Management of Technology program, a joint curriculum program with the College of Engineering. Lo received his B.S from Hampton University in Virginia.
 
Register Online
Date: Wednesday, June 24, 2020 

Time: 12:00pm - 1:00pm PT

Location: online (zoom link will be emailed to all registrants)

Cost: FREE

  
ANNOUCEMENT

“$100 million in funding participation in Black-led capital firms, startups and organizations supporting Black entrepreneurs, including increased investments in Plexo Capital and non-dilutive funding to Black founders in the Google for Startups network.” Full post here.

 

About WAFFA

The Wharton Alumnae Founders & Funders Association (WAFFA) is a 501c3 non-profit organization. Our mission is to accelerate the success of Penn Wharton female founders and investors. Today, 13% of Penn founders are women but they raise just 6% of venture capital. WAFFA harnesses the power of the Penn Wharton network to educate, support, and foster connections for female founders and funders.

Questions ask, Shannon Grant