Abbianca Makoni, Author at POCIT. Telling the stories and thoughts of people of color in tech.

NBA Star Klay Thompson Takes On The Tech World With New Investment In Fantasy Sports Startup Sleeper

Basketball superstar Klay Thompson has just invested in fantasy sports startup Sleeper, reportedly contributing to the quadrupling of its value to more than $400 million. Sleeper is a compilation of football and basketball games that people can play online with friends. Its initial focus was on the National Football League (NFL) and the National Basketball Association (NBA), but the pandemic’s impact pushed the firm to get into esports as well. The company has gone from strength to strength despite pushback from coronavirus, with an average user reportedly spending between 20 to 35 minutes on

Black Engineers Feel More Confident Entering Tech Industry With Technical Interview Practice – Study

According to a new report published by Karat, a technical interviewing company, and Howard University, Black engineers feel more confident entering the tech industry if given several interview practices. Black engineers comprised just 6 percent of all computer programmers in the U.S. in 2020. This research aims to shine a light on the challenges and opportunities that exist to improve representation. The two firms teamed up and hosted focus groups to survey 300 Black computer science students and alumni from Howard University, Morehouse College, and North Carolina Charlotte. They asked

Curastory Raises $2.1M Seed Round To Help Athletes Monetize Their Video Content

Former ESPN data scientist Tiffany Kelly has just raised $2.1million in a seed round of funding for her adtech startup Curastory. The company, first launched in 2019, is a creator tool helping student-athletes by “connecting brands in need of video content with athletes, influencers, and actors who create video content and are willing to create directly for brands,” according to Sport Techie. Lightspeed, Techstars, and Mindspring Capital led the funding round to help Curastory’s staff expansion, market growth, and sales and engineering footprint. The milestone seed comes after the firm secured a deal with

Adobe Donates $3M To HBCU And HSI Students With Ambitions To Get Into The Tech Industry

US tech giant Adobe has donated $3million to historically Black colleges and universities and a Hispanic serving institution to help minority students get into tech. Bowie State University, Winston-Salem State University, and a school catering to Hispanic students will receive $1 million donations under Adobe’s new Anchor School Program. The program aims to “provide students with training, career readiness programs, internships, financial assistance, and digital tools.” Adobe’s chief talent, diversity, and inclusion officer, Brian Miller, told Fortune that it’s a “deep, focused partnership” that “really” allows the company to expose

African Genomics Startup 54gene Raises $25M To Expand Precision Medicine Capabilities

African genomics startup 54gene has been at the forefront of bridging the divide in the global genomics market, where less than 3% of genetic material used in research is from the continent. This figure is quite shocking since Africans and people of African descent are more genetically diverse than any other population. But 54gene, which was first launched in 2018, is on a mission to radically change this picture, and the $25 million it secured in Series B funding will bolster its efforts. The milestone round came after founder Dr. Abasi Ene-Obong raised

Algorithmic Justice Pioneer Joy Buolamwini Collabs With OlaySkin To Send Girls To Coding Camp

Black women in tech are rallying together on social media to support a new campaign launched by OlaySkin and Joy Buolamwini to get more Black girls into coding camps. To combat hidden bias in beauty algorithms, Olay launched the scheme on Monday to coincide with National Coding Week. It has an ambitious but achievable mission to help send at least 1,000 young women of color to code camp next summer through a partnership with Black Girls CODE. As part of its #DecodetheBias campaign, which includes national TV spots and print

TLA Black Women In Tech To Launch And Distribute Book On 51 Inspirational Women In Tech

The not-for-profit organization is raising funds to publish a book highlighting the achievements of 51 Black women in tech to give young people in schools access to role models from diverse communities. Once the book, dubbed The voices in the shadow, is published, TLA Black Women in Tech aims to distribute 300 copies to schools in the UK and Ireland for free. The mission has also been backed by the Digital and Culture Minister, Caroline Dinenage, who said it was important for children to know they can do anything in life. There

Nigeria’s Food Processing Startup Releaf Secures $4.2M From Seed And Grants

The Nigerian agritech startup has just announced that it raised $4.2million through a seed round and a series of grants to scale its business across the country. Releaf, which has built a proprietary hardware and software solution to make farmers and food factories more efficient and profitable, was first launched in 2017 by Ikenna Nzewi and Uzoma Ayogu. The pair then went on to build Kraken, a proprietary patent-pending machine. But how does it actually work? Releaf buys nuts from farmers, then uses the Kraken to crack the nuts and crush the kernels into

Digital Health Start-Up HUED Raises $1.6M In Seed Funding

The Black founded start-up with a mission to make culturally competent healthcare accessible for minority communities has announced that it raised $1.6 million in seed funding led by the Female Founders Fund with participation from Serena William’s venture firm. Founded in 2018, HUED’s database now features over 600 healthcare providers tailored specifically towards communities of color and has developed a digital training curriculum for healthcare systems and stakeholders. The curriculum provides tools to dismantle structural and policy barriers that prevent these communities from accessing the care they need. Other round

Tips From Black Tech Twitter For Those Looking To Get Their Foot Through The Door

Black Tech Twitter is good for many things – from shining a light on the rising talent in the sector, helping members of the community land their dream jobs, to updating those who are keen to get into the industry on the latest events happening around the globe. But one thing it’s increasingly becoming well-known for is being a safe space to ask for advice and get “absolute gems” in return. Here at POCIT, we’ve broken down some of the latest advice from Black Tech Twitter this month. Just go

Abbianca Makoni

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