To offer an in-depth, data-backed look into the unique Black experience in the tech industry, the Info-Tech Research Group has published The State of Black Professionals in Tech report. “Diversity in tech is not a new topic, and it’s not a secret that technology organizations struggle to attract and retain Black employees,” Allison Straker and Ugbad Farah, Info-Tech research directors and leads on the report, said in a statement. “Current events have once again brought diversity to the forefront for many organizations. The pandemic, along with preparations for a recession and
Google for Startups is accepting applications for its Black Founders Funds in the US, Europe, Africa, and Brazil, and its Latino Founders Fund in the US. This year also marks the first time Google for Startups has opened the US funds to the public. In previous years, Google reportedly selected US businesses solely through referrals. Less than 0.5% of funding goes to Black-led startups, even though 77% of them are revenue-generating and create an average of 5.4 jobs each. First announced in June 2020, the Black Founders Fund was launched as
This article was first published by Shannon Bentley on Medium. I started to learn how to code back in January 2022. It was the moment that I declared myself ready to transition from my interpersonal career of always caring for others’ needs from a healthcare and educational perspective. January was a significant change for the fact that I was taking on learning a skill that was entirely new to me. However, months later — I will be known to take a self-proclaimed sabbatical leave away from learning this skill. How
Black-owned startup Robin AI has raised $10.5 million to transform the legal industry with its AI-driven contract editor. What is Robin AI? Robin AI is the brainchild of former Clifford Chance lawyer Richard Robinson and former machine learning research scientist James Clough. The startup trained its machine learning model on data from 4.5 million legal documents with input from in-house lawyers to create a ‘lawyer bot’ that can draft and edit legal contracts. On average, users can draft and negotiate contracts up to 80% faster, saving up to 75% on
Four-time NBA champion Stephen Curry has partnered with AI platform Simplicity to help increase the quality of life for city-dwellers across the country. Simplicity is an AI-driven platform offering a one-stop shop for everything happening in a city. Through cutting-edge technology, Simplicity aims to simplify government services, streamline communication, and enhance cities’ relationships with local communities. The platform is already in operation in over 30 major cities across the US, from New York City to Austin and Los Angeles to Cleveland and more. Curry’s involvement with Simplicity is a natural extension of
Student-focused platform America On Tech (AOT) has been awarded a one-time grant from Michael Jordan and Jordan Brands’s $100 million Black Community Commitment (BCC) to help expand their work across cities.  To celebrate Michael Jordan’s 60th birthday, the Jordan Brand awarded $2.3M to 48 organizations, to help create racial equity. America On Tech happened to be one of those, the platform founded in 2014 by Jessica Santana has spent years working to help Black and brown students elevate their careers. “Creating more equitable futures for Black people starts with an
In an ideal world, the development of AI will come with no added biases. But, unfortunately, this is not the case. As many organizations look to find a solution to AI bias, reports suggest bringing more Black women into data science will help eliminate this issue – but is it true? Diversifying data science If the developers behind AI systems look, sound, and share the same life experiences, how can we expect to have a tool reflective of society? Novelist Chimamanda Adichie touched upon this when highlighting the dangers of “a single
Like many tech hubs worldwide, Germany has experienced challenges around diversity, especially within the tech space. Nakeema Stefflbauer is working to make the German tech scene more diverse and inclusive through her latest initiative, FrauenLoop. Through the program, the native New Yorker has spent the past couple of years in Berlin, helping women upscale their skills in tech. Stefflbauer opened up about her journey from New York to Berlin and the many challenges that led her to launch her initiative. The founder, who held many tech positions before her life in Berlin, is
According to reports, Black and brown people are taking up space in 1 out of 5 corporate boards for the first time. As companies push to get more diversity from top to bottom, corporate boards see more diversity, with racial and ethnic minorities holding 20% of all board seats. In an ISS Corporate Solutions Inc. study, Black directors now hold 8.3% of all board seats, a significant jump from just 4.4% four years ago. In addition, the number of board seats held by white directors fell by 9%, with white people now
Onu, founded by Lindsey Redd and Chine Ikoro, is a developer-first program designed to help engineers have a smoother workflow. The platform – yet to be launched – allows engineers to quickly turn their ops/CV-related scripts and workflows into internal tools without requiring frontend work. Redd and Ikoro are software engineers who met five years ago while working at Lyft and Stripe. The pair who are now YC founders started the initiative after experiencing first-hand how difficult it can be to operate in a fast-moving environment without internal tooling. Companies like Stripe have
