August 28 marks the 58th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. He called for civil and economic rights and an end to racism in the U.S. We're still fighting that battle.

In a month that we also celebrate Black businesses and women's equality day, it seems appropriate that we also give a nod to the one-year anniversary of Crunchbase for tracking founders, and angel and venture capital investors by gender, race, and ethnicity, and nudging more people to contribute that information to its database.

Crunchbase provides data on private companies raising equity investments and their investors. Its Diversity Spotlight feature shines a light on the diversity in the leadership teams of startups and venture capital firms. Partner organizations like All Raise get out the word about contributing demographic data. In the last year, 1,393 contributors have updated 23,604 company profiles with diversity data. Academics have expressed interest in analyzing the data, commented Jager McConnell, Crunchbase's CEO.

"The BIPOC community has been invisible for too long in the entrepreneurial community. Facts are facts and it's time for the market to see the abundance of deals and opportunities that I and my team see and invest in," said Gayle Jennings-O'Byrne, Co-founder, WOCstar Fund—an investment fund focused on tech startups led by women of color, Native Americans, immigrants, and founders from the heartland. "I'm hopeful that such data will help other market players to invest and engage founders and funders differently because there is a lot of opportunity in diverse communities."

Read the full article about inequity in entrepreneurship by Geri Stengel at Forbes.