“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.”
Micah 6:8
In the wake of the immense tragedy of the recent deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor and the countless others who have died due to injustice, we - Talanton’s partners and our team members, are grieving and feel compelled to make public our commitment to learn and take action against racism. At Talanton, we believe in justice, equality and human rights. We therefore stand against any and all oppression and injustice because of the color of one’s skin.
Genesis 1:27 says that God created all of mankind in his own image. Everyone is equal before God, with inherent dignity and giftedness. Because of this deeply held belief, there’s no doubt in our minds that black lives matter -- immensely and unconditionally to God, and to us.
Talanton is an investment firm that is dedicated to funding high social impact businesses in low income countries, currently focused in East Africa. Our work is motivated not in small part by a desire to right the wrongs of injustice over many years that have left hundreds of millions of people trapped in deep poverty. While we do not invest in the United States, we recognize that the current tragedies are to some extent the result of blindness and silence by those like us who should have seen and spoken out before now. For that we repent and we commit to do better. We commit to fighting for the oppressed, the unemployed, and those living in poverty. We will listen. We will learn. We will act. We will partner with our black brothers and sisters to create jobs, bring hope and transform lives.
We are prayerfully taking tangible action steps, including:
· A commitment to place high impact, high growth businesses with African CEOs, management teams, and owners in a priority position within our investment pipeline;
· A commitment to prioritize and partner with world-class black and brown owned and led service providers wherever and whenever possible;
· A commitment to partner with portfolio company CEOs to advocate for and support local leadership development;
· A commitment to increase the diversity of our staff, and in particular our leadership team;
· A commitment to seek out and build deep relationships, wherever we reside, with our black and brown colleagues, friends and neighbors - listen and learn; and,
· A commitment to prayerfully consider additional action steps, in a spirit of humility and intentionality.
We pray that together, we will continue to learn and practice Christ-centered reconciliation to seek justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God arm-in-arm with our black and brown brothers and sisters. We pray and will labor for the day when all of God’s children will share in equality, love and peace here on earth and in heaven.
Please join us on this journey of learning, repentance and hope to make our prayer “thy Kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven” a reality.
God's Blessings, David and The Talanton Team
Create Jobs • Bring Hope • Transform Lives