Luke Cooper, an established founder who spent years growing a Baltimore startup before selling it to a Fortune 500 company, is now starting a venture capital fund to support underserved Black founders. He aims to address the legacy of divestment from Black communities in the city of West Baltimore. The fund will invest in startups working within the insurance, cybersecurity, fintech, frontier enterprise, and healthcare-related technology industries. “As one of the only VC-backed Black founders here, it made me unique but it also made it super difficult,” Cooper told Technical.ly. “Even after a
Motown Records and Google have announced a partnership in pursuit of elevating women of color within the music industry. The Motown Records Creator Program Supported by Google will find and fund the next outstanding woman content creator, videographer, or creative producer/director and offer an opportunity to collaborate with Motown Records’ executives and its roster of artists, including TianaMajor9. According to the announcement, the initiative aligns with Motown’s commitment to shattering barriers for talented creatives and continues Google’s ongoing mission to amplify underrepresented voices in entertainment and ensure diverse, equitable representation in
Participants study programming and problem-solving for four months, earn $250 a week, and become paid apprentices with partner employers. The initiative came during the pandemic when millions were left jobless and this predicament spurred millions more to reconsider their careers, Catalyte and vocational training nonprofit Baltimore Corps saw a heightened need — and an opportunity — for tech programs. Lily Tilden, since hired by the city health department as a full-time employee, was among a dozen rookie software developers who worked for the city in what would become the inaugural fellowship
When Nicholas Cave, from South London, isn’t in the front seat of an Uber, he’s fronting his own business. The 31-year-old based in Carshalton has transformed his original Uber side hustle into a massive opportunity. He was one of 76 Uber drivers and couriers awarded a ‘Business Builder’ grant as well as mentorship and training as part of a partnership between Uber and Enterprise Nation to encourage the development of start-up businesses amongst drivers. Last year he had the opportunity to showcase his business at a pop-up store in Oxford Street. But
To help support the progression of Black talent, Braze teamed up with other leading technology providers including Amplitude, Branch, mParticle, and Radar back in 2020 to offer free software to early-stage startups led by Black founders. Now, the American cloud-based software company based in New York City is pleased to announce the expansion of Tech for Black Founders (T4BF) with the introduction of 15 new grants. To be eligible for consideration, interested participants must be a Black founder based in EMEA or the US with a company that has fewer than
The Latinx Technology and Community Center has been awarded more than $600K in funding to renovate its second floor, part of its larger plans to create a Latinx district in Flint. To aid in this renovation, the C.S Mott Foundation has given the tech center a grant of $575,000 which was complemented by a grant of $40,000 from the Community Development Block Grant program. It comes after the tech center released a list of projects aiming to beautify both the center’s building and the handful of city blocks surrounding it
Coalition to Back Black Businesses, co-founded by the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation, American Express, and four leading national Black business organizations – announced the 491 Black-owned small businesses that have been awarded funding. The organizations, which are based across 39 states, were each awarded a $5,000 grant as part of a multi-year grantmaking and mentorship initiative. The recipients will be eligible to apply for enhancement grants of $25,000, which will be provided to a select number of 2021 grantee recipients in July 2022. The group itself was formed back
Brand will lead the company’s Global People Team and inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility initiatives while working with executive management and the Board of Directors to support the company’s strategic direction. She joined the company back in 2018, most recently serving as vice president of People Experience and head of Inclusion and Diversity. Brand has become the second Black woman and third Black C-suite executive at Twitter since the company went public in late 2013. Her promotion is a pretty big deal – given the number of minorities – particularly
The RK Mellon Foundation has made a project-related investment into a Black father-son-led company that aims to increase diversity in STEAM fields so disadvantaged populations are included in the future of work. Damola and Wole Idowu, both engineers, founded Toyz Electronics at Carnegie Mellon University’s Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Using its Social-Impact Investment Program, the Richard King Mellon Foundation invests in for-profit companies looking to accomplish a public good that aligns with its Strategic Plan. These investments are known as Program-Related Investments. The Convertible note investment leads a $500,000 seed round for Toyz Electronics and provides
According to a poll carried out by CoderPad, a candidate assessment platform, a majority of tech recruiters believe there is bias in the job hiring process. The research, which included participants from 131 countries, had 4,000 tech workers respond and almost 4,000 recruiters, half of whom were based in Europe. Almost 65 percent of them said bias was an issue in tech recruitment. Lack of diversity in tech is an issue that has been around for decades – that we know. Back in 2014, big tech companies acknowledged the gap and made
