Black Leaders Detroit has announced the fifth annual Ride for Equity—an ambitious 1,645-mile cycling journey from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to New York City. The multi-state event pays tribute to the legacy of historic Black business districts and will also raise funds to support Black entrepreneurs, BridgeDetroit reports. “We’re riding from Black Wall Street in honor of the legacy of Greenwood,” Dwan Dandridge, founder and CEO of Black Leaders Detroit, told BridgeDetroit. “And we’re going to Wall Street because it’s another place where Black people had a huge hand in creating the
Meta is threatening to shut down Facebook and Instagram in Nigeria after losing a court appeal over $290 million in fines tied to regulatory and data privacy violations, the BBC reports. $290M in fines The showdown began in 2021 when Nigeria’s Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) launched an investigation into WhatsApp’s updated privacy policy. The agency, along with the Nigerian Data Protection Commission (NDPC) and the national advertising regulator, accused Meta of multiple infractions. These include sharing user data without authorization, discriminating against Nigerian users compared to other
ChurchSpace, a Houston-born tech startup that transforms underused church buildings into rentable community spaces, is expanding its mission to the Midwest. The company has announced the relocation of its headquarters to Detroit alongside the close of an oversubscribed $1.2 million funding round. “What we built in Houston was more than technology—it was transformation,” said ChurchSpace Co-Founder and Co-CEO Day Edwards said in a press release. “We expanded our purpose and packaged proven strategies to help churches thrive, transform communities, and even combat food insecurity. Now, with prayer and the support of our team
Originally published at angelinahoward.com Recently, I had the honor of delivering a keynote address at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business Women in Tech dinner sponsored by Women in Tech Seattle and Boeing. As I shared my career journey with professionals at various stages of their careers, I was reminded of my own path—one that didn’t always follow a straight line. Finding my path as a first-generation student My college journey was anything but linear. I started with computer information systems (CIS) because my uncle studied something similar,
A new data set, SHADES, has launched to help developers tackle AI bias, such as harmful stereotypes and other forms of discrimination, that appear in AI chatbot responses across several languages, according to MIT Technology Review. Margaret Mitchell, chief ethics scientist at AI startup Hugging Face, led the international team that built the data set. This spotlights how large language models (LLMs) internalize stereotypes and assesses if they perpetuate those biases. Spotting biases in AI SHADES differs from other AI models, as most only work on models trained in English.
Are you a techie or a founder? Are you based in New York? More importantly, are you free on the 5th of June? If you tick all those boxes, we proudly invite you to our ‘Founder Stories,’ an event bringing techies together. This unique event, powered by Braze, will include a robust lineup of founders breaking barriers and transforming the tech industry. Founder Stories is part of New York Tech Week, a week of events hosted by VCs and startups to bring together the tech ecosystem. Be ready to engage in honest
Khloe Kardashian has announced the launch of her new food company, Khloud, and its first product, protein popcorn. Its investors include Serena Ventures, William Morris Endeavor (WME), and Shrug Capital. TechCrunch reported that Kris Jenner and Kardashian hoped to raise $10 million for a business called Khloud in December. K5 Global also invested in the brand, and its associate partner, Jessica Bixby, said the company went on to raise an oversubscribed $12 million round. Popcorn made with protein The Kardashians came up with the idea of Khloud after she struggled
A new e-commerce platform dedicated exclusively to Black-owned spirits is up and running. UrFriendCharles.com is home to over 150 products, with plans to add 100 more by the end of the year. The website offers users a curated experience for consumers seeking to purchase liquor from Black-owned businesses, as stated in a press release. Spotlighting Black-owned brands UrFriendCharles.com was founded by Charles Everett, a content creator and advocate with a background in supply chain management. With a cumulative following of over 100,000 on Instagram and TikTok, Everett is known for
Kofa, a Ghanaian-based energy tech company, has secured $8.1 million in a pre-Series A funding round to expand its battery-swapping network across Africa. The funding round, which comprised a mix of equity ($3.25 million), debt ($4.315 million), and $590,000 in grants, was led by E3 Capital and Injaro Investment Advisors, with support from the Shell Foundation and the UK Government’s Transforming Energy Access platform (TEA). Noteworthy European investors, such as Richard Thwaites, founder of Penso Power, also participated in the funding round. Who founded Kofa? The company was founded in 2022 by Erik
Levi’s shareholders voted against a proposal that asked the company to end its DEI efforts. The National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank, submitted a proposal to shareholders urging the company to “consider abolishing its DEI program, policies, department and goals,” according to WWD. Numerous companies, retailers, and even universities have called back on their DEI efforts to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive orders. In January, Trump revoked a six-decade-old executive order that prohibited workplace discrimination by federal contractors. Levi’s maintains its DEI efforts A company
