Constellation Brands to Invest $100 million in Female-Led Booze Brands
*By Conor White*
A gender gap persists in most industries, but among the most glaring examples of the disparity can be found in beverage manufacturing ー a business in which men make up roughly 80 percent of executives.
In order to close that gap, Constellation Brands ($STZ) has announced it will invest in female-founded beverage companies, beginning with Austin Cocktails and Vivify Beverages.
"We're excited to invest $100 million over the next ten 10 years in disruptive and innovative business in our space," said Mallika Monteiro, Constellation's chief growth officer.
"Women are the fastest-growing set of entrepreneurs in the U.S. today," Monteiro told Cheddar in an interview Friday. "Yet 2 percent \[in 2017\] of investor funding went to female-led businesses."
Constellation is hoping to shift that number ー but Monteiro said the company's efforts will go beyond a simple infusion of capital.
"We're bringing them into our network of expertise," Monteiro said. "Whether that is the network of relationships we have with our distributor partners, with our supply chain partners, and logistical partners."
For Monteiro, the decision was ultimately an easy one.
"This is an opportunity for us to double down on our commitment of diversity and inclusion," she said.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/corona-maker-constellation-wants-women-to-disrupt-the-alcohol-industry).
ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and The Associated Press said Thursday that they've made a deal for the artificial intelligence company to license AP's archive of news stories.
The ongoing liquidation of parent company Bed Bath & Beyond has now officially affected buybuy BABY stores. A judge has approved the sale of the chain's intellectual property for $15.5 million.
Prices for airfare seem to be cooling off. The latest consumer price index showed prices dropped 8.1 percent in June from a month earlier, which is the biggest decline in a year.
Alexander Mashinsky, the former CEO of the failed cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius Network, has been arrested on federal fraud charges, including wire fraud, according to CNBC.
Whenever the United Auto Workers union begins negotiating a new contract with Detroit's three automakers, threats of a strike are typically heard on the floor of the old Chrysler transmission plant in Kokomo, Indiana.
