All posts by

Kumba Kpakima

The Black Business Alliance (BBA) has received a $100,000 federal grant to fund their ‘Black Business Funding Superhighway’ initiative.  The BBA is a non-profit membership organization that helps support and grow small Black and minority-owned businesses. Their work, designed to address the gap in business access to funding, helps startups by providing them with access to both funding and educational benefits. The free twelve-week Black Business Funding Superhighway program is a mindset, educational, and mentorship program offered to select guests only. The program, designed to help Black or Brown business

LA-based tech non-profit, Minor-IT has expanded its I.T. training services to help African American and minority youths hoping to succeed in the I.T. industry.  Minor-IT, founded in 2019 by Stephen Jones, works to enable minority youth to help them pursue I.T. careers through educational experience, peer-to-peer learning, and networking.  They offer guidance and mentoring to help students with the tools needed to achieve unlimited career success. They also sponsor counsel and network with children and teens to help facilitate change in an underrepresented industry.  “For me, breaking into I.T., getting

Black-owned scheduling platform Calendly has been named one of the world’s top private cloud companies on Forbes’ Cloud 100 list.  Calendly is a cloud scheduling company on a mission to revolutionize how the world schedules. Tope Awotona launched the platform in 2013 and it is now worth a staggering $3 billion.   The app uses an automated tool to make the process of scheduling easier. Users can sync their calendars with the platform and share a link that will bring people to their Calendly page. People will not be able to see your

B2B startup Vori has raised $10 million in Series A funding. The funding round was led by Silicon Valley-based venture fund, The Factory, and included participation from Greylock, E2JDJ, MKT1, and Mollie Stone’s Markets.  Vori, founded in 2019 by Brandon Hill, Robert Pinkerton, and Tremaine Kirkman, is revolutionizing the grocery industry with its B2B operating system. Vori’s platform is committed to enhancing retailers’ inventory workflows by digitizing traditionally labor-intensive processes.  Their work unlocks the data required for grocery retailers, brands, and distributors to effectively address food access and food waste

Business accelerator program, Comcast RISE, has dedicated $1 million to supporting Philadelphia BIPOC-owned businesses.  The program, which was initially launched in 2020 as a response to help small business owners of color who were impacted financially by the COVID-19 pandemic, will award more than 100 Philadelphia small businesses owned by women and people of color with $1 million in grants.  According to a press release, Comcast RISE has distributed over $16 million in grants to early-stage businesses, and $75 million in in-kind support for marketing and technology services, impacting more than 9,500

Black-owned SaaS startup, Stimulus recently closed a $2.5 million seed round. The funding round was led by Black Ops VC and included Genius Guild, Morgan Stanley, Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures, REFASHIOND Ventures, Bronze Valley, The BFM Fund, Plain Sight Capital, Penn Medicine, and a few angel investors.  Stimulus, founded in 2017 by Tiffanie Stanard, is a relationship intelligence (SaaS) platform that uses data insights and relationship-building tools to help companies make the best purchasing decisions while assisting them in optimizing, nurturing, and growing their supplier ecosystems.  The company’s mission is to help businesses

Backstage Capital, one of the first venture capital firms to pave the way for hundreds of underrepresented founders, has announced Bank of America as the latest investor in its Opportunity Fund I.  The investment firm, founded by Arlan Hamilton, has been investing in underestimated founders since 2015. As a result, the platform has one of the largest portfolios of underrepresented founders in venture capital. Their portfolio comprises 200 companies led by women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ founders.  According to a press release, Bank of America recently announced that it had

Marceau Michel, fund manager at Black Founders Matter, is no longer with the fund after being issued an offer to resign.  According to emails shared with TechCrunch, Michel was given until June 7 to resign. However, after refusing to step down, the team offered him several alternatives to further encourage his existence. Despite this, Michel refused to hand in his resignation.  The fund, first launched in 2008, announced the launch of its 25 by 25 pledge earlier this year to encourage investment firms to support BIPOC women founders. However, according to

New research by Imperial College Business School has revealed that businesses are more likely to sacrifice racial diversity on their boards when underperforming or during times of greater productivity.  The findings, published in the Organization Science journal, investigate how negative performance feedback impacts board diversity. According to the study, board members tend to perceive others with ‘similar ascriptive backgrounds’ as more trustworthy, which is why they are less inclined to welcome members with diverse backgrounds.  The study analyses the boards of over 700 US-listed manufacturing firms, which helped them understand

Black-owned digital health platform, She Matters has closed a $1.5 million pre-seed investment fund. The funding round included participation from Oxeon Ventures, Chingona Ventures, New York University, The Fund, and Techstars.  The platform, co-founded by Jade Kearney and Marguerite Pierce, is a social networking platform designed to support Black mothers who experience postpartum comorbidities. The organization provides mothers access to a community, culturally competent healthcare, and culturally relevant resources. Additionally, they train healthcare providers on culturally appropriate healthcare and help them understand Black women’s challenges.  She Matters’ original mission was

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