This week, a new networking platform was launched to help Black tech workers make connections and grow their careers. Launched by Lekan Olawoye, founder and CEO of Black Professionals In Tech (BPTN), the Obsidi platform will serve as a conduit to opportunities for black professionals. The site allows users to upload resumes, build professional relationships, network, and leverage career development resources. His platform is a multi-sided marketplace focused on reducing the “network gap” in tech. Users can be invited to join the platform or may join themselves directly through the
On Monday, the rapper took to Instagram to share with over 10 million followers that he will not be endorsing non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Instead, Kanye will continue to place his focus on his products, the “real world,” “real food,” “real clothes,” and “real shelter.” “STOP ASKING ME TO DO NFT’s I’M NOT FINNA CO-SIGN … FOR NOW I’M NOT ON THAT WAVE I MAKE MUSIC AND PRODUCTS IN THE REAL WORLD,” he wrote for his Instagram caption. At the end of Kanye’s note, he adds “ASK ME LATER.” So, perhaps
Casava, the self-described “Nigeria’s first 100% digital insurance company”, has raised a $4 million pre-seed round. It was first founded by Bode Pedro. Before starting Casava, Pedro ran VisaCover, an insurance brokerage company, in 2014. The idea for Casava came while VisaCover provided an alternative in the auto insurance market by allowing drivers of Uber, which was one of its partners, to make weekly insurance payments instead of quarterly or yearly payments insurance partners before it operated, according to TechCrunch. He left the VisaCover company in 2016 and Pedro brought on Olusegun
If you’re interested in supporting Black voices in the gaming industry, look no further than these three titles that are either out now or currently in development. Here POCIT has made a list of three Black developers who’ve created their own video games. Shawn Alexander Shawn is the game designer, animator, visual artist, writer, and founder of Nuchallenger, an independent games and culture studio. Before creating his game – Treachery in Beatdown City – Shawn worked for almost five years at Rockstar games, where he worked on GTA IV Complete,
A Toronto-based organization dubbed the Black Professionals in Tech Network is launching a new platform for recruitment, events, and networking to encourage companies to hire Black talent. The network has inked partnerships with many large companies such as Toronto-Dominion Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, and Microsoft since it was founded in 2018. Its membership has now surpassed 50,000 Black workers, primarily across Canada and the United States – up from just 20,000 a year ago. But on Tuesday, it revealed that it would be launching a new global platform called obsidi.com during
Alejandro Cordero, a professor of electronics and the CEO & Founder of Innova Space, which is reportedly the only company in Latin America that specializes in the design and development of PocketQube pico-satellites. Innova Space was born from an educational project led by Cordero and his seventh-year students. Cordero had challenged his students of Technical High School, which is dubbed number five in the city of Mar del Plata, Argentina with designing a satellite in 2019. In the process, Innova Space received an offer from a startup accelerator. An investment of $100,000
Across industries, there’s a growing demand and prevalence of mentorship programs, but for people of color who are carving their own paths, mentors remain difficult to find. Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers are among the most valuable, fastest-growing, and highest-paying in the country, yet Latinas account for only 3% of the industry. That’s why we want to make sure you have the right resources and knowledge to help you land your dream gig. Latinas in Tech was founded in 2014 by Gretel Perera and Rocío Medina with the hopes of creating
The British Consulate-General in New York has announced the participants in the upcoming UK Black Tech Founders Mission taking place next month in New York City. Twelve unique technology firms, set up by Black entrepreneurs in the UK, will participate in the delegation. The UK founders will also meet with their US counterparts to discuss the differences between scaling a business on each side of the Atlantic and the lived Black entrepreneur experience in the UK & the US. The UK’s flag carrier, British Airways, has partnered with the British Consulate-General in New York to
Bamboo, an investment platform that allows Nigerians to buy and trade US stocks in real-time from their mobile phones or computers, has raised $15 million in a Series A funding round. Launched in January 2020 by CEO Richmond Bassey and COO Yanmo Omorogbe, the start-up has rapidly grown in popularity with retail investors, claiming over 300,000 accounts in Nigeria. Its users can access all equities available on the US stock exchanges, that is, the stocks of roughly 6,000 companies. Last year, the company launched Powered by Bamboo, it’s API solution that allows asset managers, fintech
The cohort includes 35 US creators who will get funding, training, and other resources through the program. The fund provides one year of support, including seed funding for channels, development programs, workshops, and networking opportunities. “Black creators have played an important role in shaping the culture on YouTube. From fashion and comedy to politics, learning, and wellness, Black creators have propelled our platform forward,” the company said in the announcement. A total of 26 African YouTube creators, including 10 Nigerian creators, were also picked. They were chosen to join a
