The NAACP, VistaPrint, and the Boston Celtics Shamrock Foundation have announced the second cohort of recipients from the Power Forward Small Business Grant. The collaboration between the trio and their commitment of $1 million was designed to create a lasting impact through the economic empowerment of Black-owned small businesses across New England. As well as the grants of $25,000 and the opportunity to be featured on national co-branded platforms, recipients also receive design and marketing assistance customized to their specific needs. The successful small businesses, chosen from the Boston metropolitan area, Western Massachusetts, Rhode
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.
Instagram has switched things up and has introduced a new way for creators to make money, kicking off a test of subscriptions for the social platform in the US. Announcing the news on Wednesday, Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook and chairman/CEO of its parent company Meta, said: “This will help creators earn more by offering benefits to their most engaged followers like access to exclusive Lives and Stories. “I’m excited to keep building tools for creators to make a living doing creative work and to put these tools in more creators’
According to the annual VC Diversity Survey from Chicago:Blend, 2021 did see growth in both minorities and women working in venture capital, but the city is still behind national averages. The Chicago tech scene is one of the biggest contributors to Chicago’s economy and has helped develop tech startups scale and through the first three quarters of 2021 alone, Chicago tech raised over $5.5 billion, up from $2.8 billion in 2020. 2021 saw the most venture funding since they started tracking such statistics 15 years ago. And while they can be applauded
Rapper Nas has joined US private equity firm Andreessen Horowitz and Alphabet Inc.’s Google in an investment round for Africa-focused mobile gaming platform – Carry1st. Carry1st, a South African publisher of social games and interactive content across Africa, has raised $20 million Series A from the investors. The startup, launched by Cordel Robbin-Coker, Lucy Hoffman and Tinotenda Mundangepfupfu in 2018, also received investments from Avenir and the founders of Chipper Cash, Sky Mavis and Yield Guild Games, took part. It wants to use this additional capital to scale interactive content across Africa, build the workforce and acquire new users. The
Youtube is going back to its core roots. The video-streaming giant has announced that it will return to the real reason it was created in the first place — to serve as a home to creatives with a focus on user-generated content. While the platform has spent the past six or more years building a hub for original programming with the likes of Patricia Bright hosting their own ‘Youtube Original’ shows – this news reveals that they will scale back and put the funds back into programs that were built with
Black professionals in North America are set to get new opportunities to network and level up their careers this year after Black professionals in Tech Network (BPTN), the largest Black community of tech and business professionals, announced its new partnership with Ten Thousand Coffees. The collaboration is focused on enhancing mentoring, and executive networking opportunities for Black professionals to develop their careers. Each year, BPTN hosts the CULTIVATE Mentoring Program, which pairs 350 Black professionals, under 29 years old, with executives in the tech and business industries. This Program also allows for more
Rebundle, a hair-focused startup based in St. Louis creating and selling hair extensions made from plant-based materials, has announced that it has raised $1.4 million in a pre-seed round. The idea came from Ciara Imani May’s passion for living more sustainably, which she had been trying to do even before she launched the startup with co-founder Danielle Washington. Speaking to media, she explained that in 2019 she wanted to look for a solution to the itchiness on her scalp as well as the waste associated with hair extensions. Rebundle launched
More than half of young people in the tech industry are reportedly either leaving or thinking of leaving the industry because of the poor corporate culture, according to a new study. This isn’t necessarily something new as we’ve read countless of studies that have stated the same thing in the past. But what is increasingly worrying is the number of minorities that want to leave their jobs because they feel “uncomfortable” at work or they haven’t had the best experiences. According to the Talent and skills provider Mthree study, young
The Open Source Afro Hair Library, set to launch on Juneteenth 2023, will be the gaming world’s first free database of 3D-modeled Black hairstyles. Last year, Oakland-based artist and UC Santa Cruz assistant professor A.M. Darke started recruiting Black artists for the Open Source Afro Hair Library after she began to get frustrated with the lack of effort some artists put into ensuring Black characters had realistic Black hair. For example, Monster Hunter World players didn’t see any Black hairstyles added to the game until the release of a paid expansion nearly two years
