Luke Cooper, one of Baltimore’s most successful Black entrepreneurs and the founder of venture capital firm Latimer Ventures, has joined Lyffe Capital as a partner.
In a recent LinkedIn post, Cooper wrote: “I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as senior partner at Lyffe International.” His post received over 60 comments.
Lyffe, founded by CEOs and members of Young President’s Organization, lists Hightower founder Scott Hartkopf as a general partner. It offers a range of investment opportunities to institutional investors and ultra-high-net-worth individuals. The firm has offices in Los Angeles, New York and Dubai.
Cooper was the founder of Fixt, a device repair platform that he sold to Assurant in 2020. Fixt reportedly was acquired for 11 times its annual revenue in a quick sale, as Cooper desperately needed capital to run it. Earlier, in 2006, he was a member of the founding team that started cybersecurity firm Caldwell Technology Solutions. At Caldwell, Cooper was oversaw strategic partnerships, business development and M&A, before the company was sold for $55 million to CACI in 2008.
Raised in Bridgeport, Conn., by a single mother, Cooper has emerged as one of the most prominent Black leaders in business, and as an evangelist for minority-run entrepreneurs. His Latimer Ventures, founded in 2022, funds startups by Blacks, women and other minorities.
“As one of the only VC-backed Black founders here [Baltimore], it made me unique, but it also made it super difficult,” Cooper once told Technical.ly.
Often talking up Black entrepreneurship, he once pointed out that “if there are 300 Black millionaires, that’s 300 more than we have today.”
“Tech has created more millionaires than any industry in the last 400 [years]. And that being the case, you can draw a direct parallel between my inability as a young Black person to participate meaningfully in this new burgeoning growth segment because most of the money is going in one direction,” Cooper said.
Commercial Real Estate
MacKenzie Companies
Law
Nemphos Braue
Financial Services / Investment Firms
Chesapeake Corporate Advisors
Commercial Real Estate
Monday Properties
Venture Capital
Blue Delta Capital Partners
Internet / Technology
Foxtrot Media
Cooper has also cited a 2020 Citigroup study that reportedly estimated a loss of $16 trillion in GDP over a 20-year period because of the country’s racially biased systems.
Currently the President’s Distinguished Scholar at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, Cooper has previously been a member of the Maryland TEDCO board of directors, and as the entrepreneur in residence at Georgetown University.
He has a BS degree in applied science from Adelphi University, a law degree from Syracuse University and an MBA from Babson’s F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business.
