In response to a Black entrepreneur who said VCs are racist, venture capitalist and entrepreneur Joe Lonsdale attributed disparities in venture capital investing to “average black culture” and urged the Black community to step up their game. Funding to Black entrepreneurs in the U.S. hit nearly $1.8 billion through the first half of 2021 — a more than fourfold increase compared to the same time frame last year. Led by funding to early-stage startups, 2021’s half-year total has already surpassed the $1 billion invested in Black founders in all of 2020 and the
A new report has found that the number of S&P 500 seats held by Black women has increased by more than 25% this year, following a 16% gain in 2020. The report conducted by the ISS Corporate Solutions, the data and analytics provider that advises companies on corporate governance matters, also found that the increase for Black women is twice the rate for women overall. Despite this, they still only hold 4% of S&P 500 board seats, the data shows. In November, Etsy Inc., Caesars Entertainment Inc., and HP Inc. were among companies adding Black
Black Girls Code founder Kimberly Bryant has been removed from leading the nonprofit. In a statement, its board said it’s currently investigating allegations of “workplace impropriety,” but Bryant still remains a staff member. In a tweet published on Tuesday, the tech leader said: “Press release: so it’s 3 days before Christmas and you wake up to discover the organization YOU created and built from the ground up has been taken away by a rogue board with no notification.” Many have rushed to her support with some people asking how they
You should probably know what NFTs are by now since these three-letter words have been floating around our headlines, Twitter timelines, and TV screens for the past few weeks now. But for those of you who are behind on this latest trend – we’ll let you off and give you a little reminder. What is an NFT? NFT means a Non-fungible token. The best explanation I’ve seen for it is “Non-fungible” more or less means that it’s unique and can’t be replaced with something else. For example, a bitcoin is
Adventr — an interactive streaming platform — is set to take over the tech sector with its patented voice-control technology. The Black owned startup firm, owned by Devo Harris, a Grammy-award-winning producer, just secured a $5M round. It was led by Paladin Capital, a leading global investor that has an extensive portfolio of revolutionary cyber companies. Fellow investors included Reinventure Capital, In/Visible Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Harris’ longtime business collaborator and Grammy-award-winning artist John Legend and Karen Jaw-Madsen. The funding will go toward Adventr’s technology team and marketing to
Pop duo Chloe and Halle Bailey are speaking out against the lack of diversity in the tech sector and advocating the importance of Black girls being on the forefront of the coding sector.
POCIT recently sat down with Bruce Hamilton, 30, and Mario Mitchel, 35, the founders of Mech Ventures, an early to late-stage venture capital firm that invests early in founders building fast-growing technology companies.
Cambridge-based post-seed accelerator Deeptech Labs has announced its autumn deeptech startup cohort.
Black-owned startups will soon have access to billions of dollars, thanks to this latest move by Vice President Kamala Harris.
California’s civil rights regulator is investigating Google’s treatment of Black female workers following alleged incidents of harassment and discrimination, according to two people familiar with the matter.
