Andre Iguodala Joins Comcast Ventures’ Catalyst Fund

The Catalyst Fund focuses on investing in founders from diverse backgrounds

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Comcast Ventures, the venture capital affiliate of Comcast Corporation, today announced Andre Iguodala has joined its Catalyst Fund as a Venture Partner.

Iguodala is a three-time NBA Champion and First Vice President of the National Basketball Players Association. He is a New York Times best-selling author of “The Sixth Man” and also a successful entrepreneur and startup investor, funding over 40 companies including Zoom, Datadog, PagerDuty, and Allbirds. As an investor and a member of the Board of Directors for Jumia Technologies, Iguodala helped the company grow and go public in April 2019 with a billion-dollar IPO. He also serves as a Board Advisor at enterprise software company Zuora.

“We are thrilled to welcome Andre to the Comcast Ventures team,“ said Amy Banse, Comcast Ventures’ Head of Funds and Managing Director. “Andre’s investment experience and network, coupled with his passion for supporting entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds, is a perfect fit for our Catalyst Fund. Together, we can offer early stage companies unique resources for growth, building on our vision of a startup ecosystem full of founders creating technologies for a diverse world.”

“I am excited to join the Catalyst and Comcast Ventures teams, which will provide me with the opportunity to advise and work with emerging entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds,” said Iguodala. “I have admired Comcast NBCUniversal’s commitment to invest in startups with founders who are typically underrepresented in the venture world. Together, we have unique experiences and resources no other venture firm has to help founders grow their companies.”

Andre Iguodala joins Principal Fatima Husain at the Catalyst Fund and will focus investments in companies founded by African American, Latinx, and female entrepreneurs. Husain joined Comcast Ventures in 2019 and was previously a Senior Growth Product Manager at Airbnb. She’s also a Co-Chair for an All Raise Cohort and an active advisor for AirAngels, Airbnb’s alumni angel investor group.

More about Comcast Ventures’ Catalyst Fund:

• Launched in 2011, the Catalyst Fund has supported more than 70 startups with founders from diverse backgrounds through direct investments, and in partnership with leading accelerator programs.
• The Catalyst Fund portfolio represents companies from many industries and across multiple sectors including gaming, DTC products, fintech, and enterprise applications.

For a list of portfolio companies visit: https://cvcatalyst.com/

About Comcast Ventures

Comcast Ventures (www.comcastventures.com) is the venture capital affiliate of Comcast Corporation. It is a returns-focused venture capital firm with a 20-year history investing in consumer, enterprise, and frontier technology companies. Since Head of Funds Amy Banse joined in 2011, the portfolio has grown to more than 130 companies. Some recent notable exits include: Aporeto, Cheddar, Data+Math, Docusign, and Dollar Shave Club. We are industry leading when it comes to funding women, with 26% of our portfolio having at least one female founder. Comcast Ventures is consistently ranked on the list of top 10 most active CVCs. The team includes experienced investors, entrepreneurs, and startup operators based in our offices in San Francisco, New York, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles.

About Comcast Corporation

Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA) is a global media and technology company with three primary businesses: Comcast Cable, NBCUniversal, and Sky. Comcast Cable is one of the United States’ largest high-speed internet, video, and phone providers to residential customers under the Xfinity brand, and also provides these services to businesses. It also provides wireless and security and automation services to residential customers under the Xfinity brand. NBCUniversal is global and operates news, entertainment and sports cable networks, the NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks, television production operations, television station groups, Universal Pictures, and Universal Parks and Resorts. Sky is one of Europe's leading media and entertainment companies, connecting customers to a broad range of video content through its pay television services. It also provides communications services, including residential high-speed internet, phone, and wireless services. Sky operates the Sky News broadcast network and sports and entertainment networks, produces original content, and has exclusive content rights. Visit www.comcastcorporation.com for more information.