Founder of femtech startup Ruby Love, Crystal Etienne, joined forces with her husband, Jean, last year to start VC firm CaJE, a VC that focuses on investing in “soil” rounds, similar to a family and friends investing round. Crystal’s own startup has raised $15 million since it was founded in 2016. She bootstrapped the company from its humble beginnings to over $10 million within two years. But she still felt “cajed” many times while entering the new industry with very little help along the way, but overcame every obstacle. Jean ran his
PagerDuty is hiring on pocitjobs.com PagerDuty is a known global leader in digital operations management, but the company, according to London-based EMEA senior sales director Ross Burrell, is also leading the way when it comes to a good working culture for its staff – particularly those from minority groups. “There’s an open-door policy,” he told POCIT when asked how he’s been able to grow at the company. Ross, a father and an experienced salesman said there’s no hierarchy issue at the firm, no micromanaging or aggression. Instead, you receive a
The US is experiencing a boom in entrepreneurship, and women of color are the fastest-growing group among new business owners. A recent report from Wells Fargo shows that Black-owned businesses nosedived by more than 40% in April 2020, more than other racial and ethnic groups. However, the number of Black-owned businesses has since come back strong, currently at about 30% above pre-pandemic levels. Women of color in general have been driving new business growth during the pandemic, and overall, a record number of people are looking to start their own ventures, according to the White House. And while this is amazing
A Greensboro attorney and entrepreneur is bringing racial diversity to children’s entertainment by creating a range of books using AR. Kya Johnson launched online entertainment platform RainbowMe in December 2014 with co-founders Talib Graves-Manns, who is a marketing entrepreneur, and Bernard Bell, an Atlanta-based television veteran. Back in 2014- RainbowMe was one of three organizations to receive free workspace and $40,000 in seed funding from CODE2040’s Entrepreneurs-in-Residence pilot program. CODE2040, a San Francisco nonprofit that supports the inclusion of underrepresented minorities in the tech industry, partnered with Google on the initiative that’s backing African-American and
Who Is Babajide Duroshola, The Ex-SafeBoda Executive, Who Joined M-KOPA To Lead Its Africa Expansion
M-KOPA, an African connected asset financing platform that provides underbanked customers in Africa to essential products including solar lighting, televisions, fridges, smartphones, and financial services, raised $75M after it clocked 2 million customers across four African markets. The “growth equity round” highlighted by M-KOPA in its press statement is its fifth equity fundraise – it has raised similar rounds of debt, too and in total, its equity raise stands at $190 million. It was previously backed by the CDC Group and Light rock took part in this round alongside LocalGlobe’s
Race and gender discrimination in technology remain an issue, according to Dice’s newly released Equality in Tech Report. The report said that between 2020 and 2021, there was little change in sentiment around gender and racial discrimination. And the perception of racial discrimination increased for both Black technologist respondents (57%, up from 55% in 2020) and technologists who identify as women (at double the rate of technologists who identify as men.) The report said that perception of a lack of leadership opportunities and salary and benefit inequities were cited as a common
You might have read the article published last year on the Silicon Valley employee who hid his disability from his employers. In an in-depth piece about his experiences, they started off by saying: “I have a learning disability, meaning that I learn differently from other people. I live and work in Silicon Valley, the natural habitat of road runners. I’ve spent my professional life as one of those worker bees who creates the widgets and doodads that make life a little easier. For the sake of this story—and my employability—let’s
African fintech Flutterwave has raised $250 million in a Series D round that tripled the company’s valuation to over $3 billion in justtwelve months.
According to U.S. Labor statistics, as of December 2020, the global talent shortage amounted to 40 million skilled workers worldwide. By 2030, the global talent shortage is expected to reach 85.2 million—сompanies worldwide risk losing $8.4 trillion in revenue because of the lack of skilled talent. But the reality is more complicated than just a shortage of developers. The problem also has a lot to do with how most companies hire developers. A 2017 Indeed survey found that 80% of U.S. tech managers have selected a candidate who has graduated from a coding boot camp
Egypt and US-based MoneyHash has just emerged from beta with $3 million in pre-seed funding.
