Kadeem Woodson opened Enkel’s Barbershop last year to provide more comfort for queer customers. Although barbershops have long been regarded as a sanctuary for Black men – not all of them are a safe space for queer Black men. A study by Smith College found that some Black, queer patrons who viewed themselves as “clockable” or easily detected as a homosexual would change their physical appearance and visit shops during off-peak hours to avoid uncomfortable situations. But Woodson says he wants members of his community to remain authentically themselves and feel comfortable
Athlete and activist Colin Kaepernick and his partner’s Canadian businessman Jim Nikopoulos and activist Akim Aliu have made a seed investment in Naomi Osaka’s KINLÒ brand with Kaepernick joining the brand’s board of directors. Osaka has also brought on a new brand President, Mia Meachem, who joins KINLÒ with over 20 years of brand marketing experience with roles across notable beauty brands including Drunk Elephant – a part of the Shiseido organization, The Estee Lauder Companies, and Burt’s Bees. In her new role as President, Meachem will help to drive
A £3 million cash fund for black founder-led tech businesses has been announced by Google. The Black Founders Fund, running for its second year, will be awarded to innovative European tech startups run by black founders. Recipients will need to demonstrate how they’re using technology to solve everyday problems. In return, they will receive up to $100,000, plus $200,000 in credit to use towards Google’s cloud services and advertising support, and mentoring by industry experts. “The UK is one of the most start-up-friendly environments in the world. Yet, Black start-up founders
According to The Big Deal, less than 1% of all VC dollars went toward startups with one or more women founders last year, details investments in Africa. However, on a more positive note – depending on how you look at it, founding teams counting women and men as members raised 17% of VC investments in Africa in 2021. But the lack of investment in women-founded startups isn’t new. If we took a look back almost a decade ago – according to Briter Bridges, another publication that tracks VC investments in
Last week, Yep!, a “financial super app” with payments, remittance, and banking features, announced that it has raised $1.5 million in a pre-seed round led by pan-African VC Greenhouse Capital. The San Francisco- and Lagos-headquartered startup was started by Olaoluwa Awojoodu, who then teamed up with Airende Ojeomogha and Garry Ottosen to start Yep!. The startup plans to go live across the five markets where E-Settlement is present, serving digital financial services to consumers, small business owners, and merchants. They also have a mission to enhance financial inclusion by leveraging PayCentre Africa — the startup’s agent banking platform, to
Curacel, the YC-backed startup developing insurance infrastructure for the African market, has launched a new interface that allows digital businesses like those in retail, fintech, e-commerce, and logistics to add insurance to their core products. Dubbed Curacel Grow – the new product is an embedded insurance product that empowers technology companies to seamlessly offer insurance as part of their existing products and services. The Nigerian insurtech startup is launching Grow to support insurance distribution to millions of Africans through partners like Barter by Flutterwave, Float, Payhippo, and other leading technology companies. Insurance
Antler East Africa, the Nairobi office of VC firm and venture builder Antler, has closed a $13.5 million fund to invest in early-stage tech startups in the region. Antler, which was first launched in 2019, actually intended to raise $10 million but ended up with an extra $3.5 million. It runs a full venture building model with two cohorts each year. Five cohorts with 153 founders have passed through the accelerator programs so far, and the firm has made 14 investments, according to reports and a few of them include
After less than two years as Netflix’s chief marketing officer, Bozoma Saint John is leaving the streaming giant. Variety was the first outlet to break the exclusive story and according to their report, Saint John’s departure from the company was “mutual and amicable.” The company, which also confirmed the moves on Thursday, did not elaborate on why Bozoma is departing. But in a statement, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos said he “loved working with Boz and have been inspired by her creativity and energy” and that she’s “attracted world-class marketers to the company
Carl is a seasoned product executive with 10 years of experience developing products for the Robotics and Artificial Intelligence industries and specializes in making products that solve urgent problems and are easy to use by anyone. Before founding Boundless Robotics, Carl worked at Rethink Robotics, Neurala, Johnson & Johnson and started another company that manufactured components for the Aerospace, Oil & Gas, and Medical Device Industries. The Boston-based founder started Boundless Robotics with the vision to “create an ecosystem that cultivates health and happiness.” Boundless is using technologies such as
Binga founded the Binga State bank in 1908 in Chicago and it was one of two pre-eminent Black-owned financial institutions in the US until its collapse during the Great Depression. Born in Detroit in 1865, Binga established himself in Chicago first as a real estate broker during the Great Migration. He was able to buy homes at a cheap price from white locals fleeing their neighborhoods in the wake of Black Americans moving in from the South. After buying the homes – he was able to fix them up himself and
