As Black-owned businesses face increasing financial pressures during and after the startup stage, many of them have sadly had to close their doors. The state of Black entrepreneurship Black Americans are among the most entrepreneurial groups in the nation, with 1 in 5 Black people in the US starting their own business. From 2017 to 2020, the nation witnessed a remarkable 13.64% surge in the number of Black-owned businesses. Black-owned firms brought in an estimated $141.1 billion in gross revenue in 2020 – an impressive 11% increase since 2017. In
Heels & Tech, an e-learning platform aimed to empower women with technical education and upskilling, has teamed up with the University of California, Santa Cruz, with an initiative for immigrants. Heels & Tech The platform aims to close the gender gap between women and tech, helping women to secure flexible paid work. They offer training and mentorship on in-demand tech roles by connecting women with industry professionals. Describing herself as a generalist, Nigerian founder Bisola Alabi started Heels & Tech to cater to women like her, moms who wanted to
After closing in February, Black-owned non-profit organization Kwanda has returned with a new structure and a brand new product. On Kwanda’s new platform, Moyo, givers can come together to provide a stable monthly income to people below the poverty line. Kwanda’s Journey Kwanda launched in 2020 with a platform that brought individuals together to pool capital to fund grants and infrastructure projects across Africa. It is a modern collection pot for Black communities, modelled on the age-old practice of collective finance in African Caribbean communities, Jermaine Craig, founder of Kwanda,
Maelstrom Fund, Jackie Robinson Foundation, and World of Money have partnered to create the Our Wallet program, providing teenagers from BIPOC backgrounds with financial literacy education. Our Wallet Our Wallet is a financial literacy program providing tools and resources for BIPOC youth and future leaders. AfroTech reported that the program was birthed from a partnership between the Maelstrom Fund, the Jackie Robinson Foundation, and World of Money. The Maelstrom Fund is an early-stage investment fund run by the family office of Black entrepreneur Arthur Hayes, the founder of the cryptocurrency
The body of Yohanes Kidane, a 22-year-old Software Engineer graduate who had just moved to the Bay Area to work with Netflix, was found near the Golden Gate Bridge last week and has been positively identified. What Happened? Yohanes Kidane was reported missing on August 14 after moving to San Jose, California, to start a role as a software engineer at Netflix. He had been last seen entering a black Toyota Camry with an Uber sticker on 28 N 4th St. San Jose, wearing grey sweatpants, a black hoodie and
Founder of digital services and software development firm Fearless aims to make it a $1 billion company by 2030. Fearless Founded in 2009 by Delali Dzirasa, Fearless is an impact-focused digital services integrator building software while creating conditions for organizations and their staff to thrive. Human-centred digital solutions and organizational transformation help unlock the potential of people, organizations and tech. Dzirasa wanted to make government services accessible and usable for civil servants and the general public. He has grown the company for 14 years by bootstrapping, a funding option allowing
U.S. Justice Department Files Lawsuit Against SpaceX Over Alleged Discrimination In Hiring Practices
The U.S. Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX, for allegedly discriminating against asylees and refugees in hiring. Musk’s SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft. The Lawsuit The lawsuit alleges that from September 2018 to May 2022, SpaceX routinely discouraged asylees and refugees from applying. It also states the company refused to hire or consider them because of their citizenship status, violating the Immigration and Nationality Act. In job postings over several years, the rocket company wrongly claimed that under federal regulations known as
The conservative group, American Alliance for Equal Rights, led by Edward Blum, has filed a lawsuit against law firms Perkins Coie and Morrison Foerster, challenging their diversity fellowships. The lawsuits allege these fellowships unlawfully discriminate against white candidates and request that racial considerations be eliminated from fellowship selections. The Law-Firms Law firm Perkins Coie has diversity fellowships for first-year and second-year students from underrepresented backgrounds. Their 1L – first fellowship offers students a $15,000 academic scholarship on top of a paid summer role, and their 2L- second-year- fellowship gives students $25,000. They
Inuit Mailchimp has given Atlanta-based Black women’s artist collective TILA Studios $100,000 in unrestricted funding. Mailchimp Atlanta-based tech company Inuit Mailchimp is an email and marketing automation platform for growing businesses. They aim to empower customers worldwide to start and grow their businesses with world-class marketing technology. The platform makes data-backed recommendations for businesses automatically and with the help of AI. In 2021, Mailchimp was acquired by Intuit, an American business software company specializing in financial software. Recently, Inuit Mailchimp announced a pledge of $1 million to increase and help
A report by ResumeBuilder.com found that over 40% of Black workers would take a pay cut for a shortened workweek. There were 976 business leaders surveyed to determine their current attitude toward a 4-day workweek policy. 4 in 10 companies plan to shorten the workweek. The survey of business leaders revealed 3 in 10 companies have plans to utilize a four-day workweek by the end of this year. Over 40% said they plan to implement a 4-day workweek by 2024, while 8% said they would shorten it by 2025 or later. Nearly
