Frank Baker, the founder and managing partner of Siris, a leading private equity firm in technology and telecommunications that’s raised nearly $6.0 billion in capital, announced he is paying the tuition balances of about 50 seniors who are graduating from Spelman.

“The people who my heart really goes out to are women in their senior year who can’t afford it anymore and have to drop out,” said Baker.

Baker has spent $250,000 to cover the tuition balances of about 50 women so they could graduate this year with no money owed to Spelman College.

This surprise financial gift to an HBCU comes one year after Billionaire Robert F. Smith paid off all the loan debt for the graduating class of Morehouse College.

Like Smith, Baker is also an African American who found success in business by starting a private equity firm that invests in technology companies.