India had eight unicorns in 2018, nine in 2019, and 11 in 2020. Last year, the country celebrated 42. Similarly, it took China five years to reach five unicorns between 2010 and 2015, but then saw 21 unicorns in 2016 – and 91 unicorns in 2019. While Latin America has followed a similar trajectory, raising $14.8 billion in 2021 – more than it had raised between 2014-2020 combined – and minting nine of the region’s 17 unicorns. Now Africa, once a continent that was lagging behind in the investment race, is reportedly seeing $1
The US elderly population is projected to nearly double to 90 million by 2050 as more eldercare shifts from institutions to the home where the family can take care of them. But most of the current 53 million caregivers are ill-prepared for their responsibilities and struggle to balance both their jobs, children and taking care of those in need. Bianca Padilla saw a gap in the market and together with her husband Jonathan Magolnick they launched Carewell, the leading e-commerce resource for caregivers. The inspiration for the firm came when Padilla and her mother became unexpected
Pinterest has announced that Nichole Barnes Marshall will be replacing Tyi McCray as the Global Head of Inclusion and Diversity. Her role will include leading the I&D team and partnering with the co-founder and CEO, Ben Silbermann, to “drive accountability, adoption, and strategies for workplace, culture, and marketplace programs.” She comes to Pinterest from Bath and Body Works, where she was the Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer for seven months. Nichole brings more than 20 years of experience in DE&I and recruitment at iconic brands like L Brands, Aon, and
Kimberly Bryant, who founded Black Girls Code in 2011, released an official statement on December 30, days after the company’s board of directors suspended her after several misconduct complaints. The statement, which can be found on Twitter, said: “After obtaining legal counsel to address my unlawful suspension only days before Christmas, I spoke with ABC7’s Julian Glover to share additional details about concerns with members of the Black Girls. CODE board of directors.” She claimed the suspension was a part of an agenda to “impact a small, women-founded, women-led nonprofit” with women
Award-winning tech diversity champion Ezechi Britton has been appointed an MBE in the 2022 New Year Honours list for his services to Diversity and Young People. It comes years after Britton was named Venture Capitalist of the Year at the Inclusive Tech Alliance (ITA) Awards for his commitment to underrepresented founders and his “impressive transition from software development to venture capital”. Britton is the co-founder of Code Untapped, a social enterprise set up to increase the number of people in tech from ethnic minority backgrounds. The firm provides crucial training
You should probably know what NFTs are by now since these three-letter words have been floating around our headlines, Twitter timelines, and TV screens for the past few weeks now. But for those of you who are behind on this latest trend – we’ll let you off and give you a little reminder. What is an NFT? NFT means a Non-fungible token. The best explanation I’ve seen for it is “Non-fungible” more or less means that it’s unique and can’t be replaced with something else. For example, a bitcoin is
Cambridge-based post-seed accelerator Deeptech Labs has announced its autumn deeptech startup cohort.
The Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurship, a firm helping Black entrepreneurs with mentorship and networking, is set to receive a $1 million donation and partnership as it ramps up programming after more than a year of pandemic-related delays. It has now raised more than $34 million from about 48 partners to build out its facilities and resources, CEO Jay Bailey said. And the Global financial technology company Fiserv Inc. (Nasdaq: FISV) is the latest corporate giant to support the center.
CinetPay has secured $2.4 million in seed funding with venture capital funding from 4DX Ventures and unicorn Flutterwave. The startup, a payment gateway that allows e-merchants and merchants to accept mobile money and other payments in Francophone Africa, was founded by Idriss Monthe and Daniel Dindji in 2016. It acts as an online and point-of-sale payment solution for merchants to process payment from more than 130 payment operators — mobile money, bank cards, wallets. On the platform, merchants have to open an account and upload their KYC, integrate Cinet’s APIs, and collect payments. It came
Gender Equality in Tech (GET) Cities, led by SecondMuse Foundation and Break Through Tech, has launched a third city hub in Miami as part of Pivotal Ventures’ $50 million investment focused on diversifying the tech industry. The hub, dubbed GET Miami, will work collaboratively with the region’s tech ecosystem to propel more women, trans, and nonbinary people, particularly Black, Latino/a, Indigenous, and people of color, into tech education, careers, and leadership. The company’s main blueprint is to address the challenge of inclusion by leveraging three key pillars – academia, industry, and entrepreneurship. GET Miami will
