A Black-led, Gen Z fintech startup providing income-constrained individuals investment opportunities has announced an $18M Series A investment round. The group of diverse investors rallying up to fund Lendtable’s future included SoftBank’s SB Opportunity Fund, Valor Equity Partners, and CEOs of Complex Networks and Social Finance, Inc. The fintech firm, run by founders under 30-years-old, has already disbursed over $2.4 million in match benefits to hundreds of employees in just a year, running the gamut from those employed by small consumer brand companies to Fortune 500 companies like Google, Microsoft,
A minority-owned platform that allows you to compare colleges, course options, and tuition fees all in one go has just managed to raise $1M in a pre-seed round that will go towards improving its search and recommendation technology. Craydel was launched earlier this year by co-founders Manish Sardana, John Nguru, and Shayne Aman Premji. It was inspired by the lack of a reliable portal in Africa to guide the big decisions on which college and course selection students will take. The trio then decided to bring to life a platform that would eliminate this
Of course, the closure announcement was a big shock to everyone since Disha had reportedly bootstrapped to more than 20,000 users and had claimed to have a monthly growth rate of about 100 percent. No one expected this would happen, but as with most startups – resources are a significant problem, and a lack of them can mean great companies fall through the gap. The Nigeria-based platform allows digital creators to curate, sell digital content, create portfolios, and receive payments from their audience globally. This is a $100 billion economy.
MFS Africa, an inter-operability hub connecting mobile network operators across the continent through a single API, has raised $100 million in a Series C round. That’s a pretty significant number for a Series C funding round, and it’s split between $70 million equity and $30 million debt. Private equity fund AfricInvest FIVE co-led the round with existing investors Goodwell Investments and LUN Partners Group. New investors CommerzVentures, Allan Gray Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst, and Endeavor Harvest joined in while ShoreCap III returned as an existing investor with other funds. For someone who spent more than
A new initiative from the Greater Augusta Black Chamber of Commerce Foundation hopes to help Black start-up owners navigate starting a small firm, with a new program providing training and grants of $3,000 for 25 Augusta area entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurship training program already has several business owners hoping to participate. The 25 initial participants will go through four weeks of training and six weeks of coaching, learning everything from record-keeping and insurance to marketing and risk management. According to Yahoo, it’s funded with $125,000 from Bank of America, partnering with the Greater Augusta
Less than half of Britain’s Black business owners – 43 percent – trust banks to support their interests, a new survey has revealed. The report, entitled ‘Black British In Business and Proud’, highlights the issue of structural racism in terms of accessing capital, and its impact on Black business owners. The research, which was sponsored by Lloyds Bank and undertaken by Savanta, surveyed 808 participants from Black communities in Britain – 345 of whom were Black business owners. It revealed that Black business owners are 21% more likely to be self-financed than
Like many industries, the tech sector still has some way to go in addressing diversity and bias issues and although there has been some progress with big companies like Google creating initatives specifically for minority communities – the work shouldn’t and doesn’t stop there. After diverse intake in companies – what roles are they being given, the salary disparity once in the role, the treatment among colleagues and the handling of racism allegations. We’ve heard countless of stories of Black employees and their allies being sidelined for speaking out against
A 17-year-old student at Iowa City West High School has invented color-changing sutures to detect infection and is now set on getting it patented. Working with an eye on equity in global health, Daisy Taylor hopes that the color-changing sutures will someday help patients detect surgical site infections as early as possible so that they can seek medical care when it has the most impact. Daisy began working on the project back in October 2019, after her chemistry teacher shared information about state-wide science fairs including the Science Talent Search
Software developer Charlene Hunter is on a mission to close the diversity gap in the tech industry and is set on helping other Black women get their foot in the door. East Londoner Charlene founded Coding Black Females back in 2017 after feeling fed up with being the only Black woman in her role at her company. Her non-profit network is a community that uplifts Black female developers and helps them find opportunities. Coding Black Females, which Charlene runs alongside co-CTOs Tanya Powell and Efua Akumanyi and their team, has become a
The Black-owned Nourish + Bloom Market is about to disrupt traditional grocery stores as it becomes the first minority-owned autonomous grocery store in the US. It’s set to open on December 17th in Fayetteville, Georgia, featuring “frictionless shopping.” This means that customers will be able to walk in, grab what they need, and leave without waiting in line or stopping to scan and pay, especially helpful in this “new normal” post-pandemic world. They will simply have to scan a QR Code from Nourish + Bloom’s app that connects to their digital wallet
