Cyclotron Road’s Etosha Cave Recognized as one of Vanity Fair’s 26 Women of Color Diversifying Entrepreneurship
Etosha Cave, alumna of the Advanced Manufacturing Office’s (AMO) Cyclotron Road program and co-founder of Opus 12, was recognized as one of the “26 Women of Color Diversifying Entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley, Media, and Beyond,” by Vanity Fair. Each of the 26 African American women honored has raised $1 million or more in outside capital (before November 15, 2017, according to start-up accelerator DigitalUndivided), breaking barriers and shattering glass ceilings along the way.
Women of color currently make up 13 percent of the female U.S. population, but just 4 percent of the estimated 2,200 women-led tech startups. The average amount of funding a black female founder gets is $36,000. By comparison, the average failed startup raises $1.3 million, reported Moguldom. However, according to Vanity Fair, “over the last two decades, black women have become the fastest-growing demographic of entrepreneurs, owning nearly 60 percent of all black businesses.”
Opus 12 was one of six clean energy startups selected from around the country to be incubated in the first cohort of the prestigious Cyclotron Road program at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, which is where the company is located today.