Armed with smartphones and armies of faithful fans, social media sensations such as Khaby Lame are building fortunes by redefining the rules of entertainment, advertising, and stardom. The inaugural Forbes Top Creators list highlights the 50 social superstars leveraging a combined 1.9 billion followers across social networks to earn $570 million in 2021 alone. Their average age is just 31. Next year’s windfall is significantly richer as famous personalities shift from influencers to owners, using their massive reach to start their own ventures—clothing lines, beauty empires, TV series, and fast food chains.
Timothy Armoo sold his influencer business Fanbytes to global digital marketing agency Brainlabs for an undisclosed eight-figure sum. He’s done what every aspiring business owner hopes to do – all at 27. We previously interviewed Timothy Armoo on the Techish podcast. Speaking to Sifted EU, Armoo, whose startup connects social media influencers with big brands for promotion work, says the acquisition is like a marriage. “You’re merging two companies, cultures and sets of people together, so you want it to be the right fit. Start “dating” partners while you’re still building
Headspace Health is acquiring Shine, a mental health and wellness app dedicated to providing an inclusive mental health experience for the BIPOC community. Founded in 2016, Shine has more than 45,000 paid subscribers and has reached over six million people by offering self-guided content. It also offers daily mediations, self-care courses, personalized support, and virtual workshops hosted by third-party experts and its community. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Still, Headspace Health says the acquisition of the New York-based company will expand its ability to provide more
Navigating the world of dating apps is no easy feat, but what’s exponentially worse than trying to figure out if someone is actually six feet tall like their profile promises? Receiving messages that are inappropriate because of your skin color. Despite hours of scrolling, clicking, swiping, or answering personality questions, POC often find that they are as isolated on these apps as they were in a bar or at a party. Gendered racism on dating apps is not news. Yet we know rather little about how the daters experience gendered racism and how online
Businesses in the US and Canada can now self-identify as Black-owned on Tripadvisor. The world’s largest travel guidance company decided to launch the new feature after research showed that 77% of Black-owned businesses and 63% of Hispanic/Latinx-owned businesses actively use their platform. Tripadvisor aims to use the data gathered on its users to help make accommodation providers and restaurants-owners feel safe and welcomed on the platform. Now more than ever, it is crucial that POC-led businesses get the recognition they deserve to help amplify their voice and make their businesses
Founded in 2017 by Hilda Moraa, Pezesha is a Kenyan digital lending infrastructure that allows both traditional and non-traditional financial institutions to offer working capital to micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). Now, the startup has secured an $11 million pre-Series A equity-debt round led by Women’s World Banking Capital Partners II with participation from Verdant Frontiers Fintech Fund, cFund and Cardano blockchain builder Input Output Global (IOG). The round also included a $5 million debt from Talanton and Verdant Capital Specialist Funds. Access to finance remains a key growth constraint
Kuda, a digital bank based in Nigeria and the U.K., has confirmed via email to media that it has laid off less than 5% of its 450-strong workforce, equivalent to about 23 people. There have been other startups, especially those that have raised vast sums of venture capital within the last year or two, that have laid off hundreds of staff; for instance, Swvl laid off 400 people; Wave, approximately 300; 54gene, 95; and Vezeeta, 50. The layoffs come a year after Kuda, which provides zero to minimal fees on cards, account maintenance and transfers,
One young company attracting interest in the field of autonomous driving is Heex Technologies, a POC-led startup offering a “smart data management platform” to help carmakers sift through the sea of data required to put autonomous vehicles on the road. CEO and co-founder Bruno Mendes Da Silva was initially focused on solving the pollution crisis before this idea. “My original focus was on fighting pollution — I first launched an electric vehicle rental service after an academic exchange in Shanghai. [It was then that] I realized there are more problems
According to Insider Intelligence, there are currently over 2 million podcasts and 424.2 million podcast listeners worldwide in 2022, a 10.6% increase from the previous year. As of 2020, the global podcasting market size was valued at $11.46 billion. It grew to $13.785 billion in 2021 and is expected to be a massive $153.07 billion in 2030, according to Acumen Research and Consulting. This growth has been spurred by a number of factors – from the proliferation of new celebrity shows, investments from companies like Spotify, and the increased affordability and availability of tech such as smartphones
A well-known influencer collective, Collab Crew (formerly known as Collab Crib) has had a turbulent few months with its founder Keith Dorsey stepping down to focus on his mental health, appointing Robert Dean III (@robiiiworld) to take the lead and of course the big news that it’s shifting from a collab house into a studio. What was the ‘Collab Crib? It was one of the nation’s only content houses for all-Black influencers. There – 10 young creators worked daily under the care of a manager. Most of them lived in
