Earlier this year, a two-year-old Thai girl named Matheryn became the youngest person to be cryogenically frozen, preserving her brain moments after death in the hope that she would one day be brought back to life. According to reports, baby Matheryn Naovaratpong, nicknamed Einz, is a patient currently being held at Alcor, an organization currently housing 200 bodies that it hopes to give a second chance of life. The company depends on science and tech to do this. Matheryn died from brain cancer in 2015. Her parents, Nareerat and Sahatorn,
Black Women Talk Tech, a worldwide collective of Black women tech founders, celebrates its longstanding relationship with Microsoft and continues collaboration with a host of new projects for 2022. BWTT seeks to identify, support, and encourage all women to build the next billion-dollar business. Its next event, Face of a Founder Summit, is set for Feb. 24, 2022. In the fifth year of the relationship, Microsoft has supported Black Women Talk Tech’s Roadmap to Billions Conference, which took place at the company’s New York City headquarters in 2018. In addition, Microsoft
Throughout history, engineering was almost entirely the domain of white men, for example, it was in 1892 that The Massachusetts Institute of Technology had its first African-American graduate, Robert R. Taylor. It was only 25 years later, in 1917, that the university gave its first civil engineering diploma to an African-American. Although we’re in 2022 – the pictures are still relatively similar – white men still dominate the industry. The UK has one of the most male-dominated engineering sectors, Male academic scientists outnumber their female counterparts by two to one
DrugStoc co-founders Chibuzo Opara and Adham Yehia launched DrugStoc to serve as a tech-enabled solution that combats the continent’s broken pharmaceutical supply chains through connecting drug store companies with hospitals and pharmacies in Nigeria.
Project Entrepreneur, a UBS program designed to level the playing field for female founders, and Hello Alice, a multi-channel platform that helps businesses launch and grow, announced the winners of its Democratizing the Friends & Family Round program, which attracted 12,000 applications.
India had eight unicorns in 2018, nine in 2019, and 11 in 2020. Last year, the country celebrated 42. Similarly, it took China five years to reach five unicorns between 2010 and 2015, but then saw 21 unicorns in 2016 – and 91 unicorns in 2019. While Latin America has followed a similar trajectory, raising $14.8 billion in 2021 – more than it had raised between 2014-2020 combined – and minting nine of the region’s 17 unicorns. Now Africa, once a continent that was lagging behind in the investment race, is reportedly seeing $1
Congolese designer Anifa Mvuemba created a social media firestorm when she gave the world a preview of her collection from her fashion brand, Hanifa, on Instagram Live with a 3D runway presentation. The six looks that makeup Mvuemba’s Pink Label Congo collection undulated on-screen as they moved on invisible figures. 3D models “walked” down the screen with garments draped on their three-dimensional curves. Anifa had been using 3D mockups for a while to convey ideas to her team during sample-making but she told Teen Vogue that “designing content using 3D models and
Black Girl Ventures is mapping out its plans for the year, including a new startup accelerator program, to help elevate more female founders of color. The DC nonprofit, which supports and drives funding to early-stage companies led by Black and brown women, is accepting applications for three efforts targeting female entrepreneurs. The program aims to “change the playing field for Black and Brown women-identifying founders while closing the generational wealth gap, strengthening families, and creating a more equitable society,” the website reads. Those chosen will receive a $5,000 stipend, business resources, development
Best known for his “Crank That” song, DeAndre Cortez Way, professionally known as Soulja Boy, was able to use tech-savvy ways to launch his career as a pioneer in the digital hip hop era. His journey into the music industry is different from most artists. The Chicago-born artist initially self-published the catchy song to the internet in 2007 and uploaded the corresponding “Soulja Boy dance” on YouTube, generating hundreds of thousands of views. Now the videos sit at a comfortable 504M views – not bad for someone who was just
Sorare, the player-owned fantasy sports game leveraging NFTs, has welcomed Serena Williams as an advisor to its board of directors. One of the most iconic athletes, Williams is also an entrepreneur, brand builder, and investor at the forefront of sports and technology. Sorare is combining NFT collectibles with fantasy sports to drive long-term utility and value for NFTs on the platform and beyond, unlocking a new era of sports fandom on and off the field. Since it was founded in 2018, the company has experienced incredible demand and hypergrowth, increasing
