Minority-owned early-stage cannabis fund, JourneyOne Ventures, has closed a $10 million fund to invest in businesses within the growing cannabis industry. The fund includes a range of investors like Paul Bown, founder of Bowen; Elizabeth Yin, general partner at Hustle Fund; Eric Manlunas, general partner at Wavemaker Partners and Fred Kang, a former partner at Andreessen Horowitz. JourneyOne Ventures, founded in 2017 by Helene Servillon, is committed to building a community of genuinely talented entrepreneurs. The investment company, 100% women-led and minority-owned, invests in bold performers within the cannabis industry
Founder and CEO of mental health tech startup MindRight Health, Ashley Edwards, has raised $1.78 million in seed funding. The funding round led by investment platform Lifeforce Capital included existing investors Acumen America and Impact America Fund. New investors included Hopelab Ventures, Gaingels and Impact Assets, and Pivotal Ventures. Edwards previously raised $1 million for MindRight Health in 2020. In doing so, became one of only 35 Black women in the US, and was reportedly the first Black woman in New Jersey, to achieve this level of VC funding. This
Edlyft is taking the $100 million diversity and inclusion tech market by storm. The edtech startup, founded by longtime friends Erika Hairston and Arnelle Ansong in 2020, provides support for college students and adult learners in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) courses. Their mission is to provide the right environment and tools for the next generation of engineers to succeed and, hopefully, get one step closer to closing the gender gap in STEM. Their digital platform connects learners to inclusive mentorship, online group tutoring, live and recorded sessions, and personalized study
After weeks of speculation about a leaked draft opinion that indicated that abortion would no longer be guaranteed as a federal right but instead left up to the states to decide, the United States Supreme Court has officially overturned Roe v. Wade. The move will allow more than half of states to ban abortion, with an immediate and enduring impact on tens of millions of Americans. The court decided there is no constitutional right to abortion in a case called Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization. In reaching that decision, the conservative-majority
The Black Founders Matter venture fund recently announced the introduction of the 25 by 25 Pledge, which encourages venture capitalists to commit to investing a quarter of their funds into BIPOC women founders by the year 2025. The pledge also requires VC firms to have 25% of their staff be BIPOC women, believing the increase in diversity behind the scenes will help pivot more deal flow into marginalized communities. Campaigners have been demanding greater diversity in tech for years and Crunchbase data published earlier this year revealed BIPOC women are
Nana Ghartey’s voice assistant software may have started out in his grandmother’s house, but it’s now being used by the thousands of older and visually-impaired people all over Ghana excluded by Western voice technology. How did he get into tech? Ghartey taught himself mobile app development and built desktop applications, websites, and eventually mobile games, none of which were part of his school curriculum, by reading the programming textbooks that an uncle visiting from the US had left behind. Here’s his story. In 2010, the wealthiest American tech companies had
Shonda Rhimes and Netflix are partnering on The Producers Inclusion Initiative and The Ladder. These are two new and paid programs to expand opportunities for emerging creatives in TV and film, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Both initiatives are a part of Rhimes’ commitment to expanding the representation of those in front of and behind the camera and they are also underwritten in part by Netflix’s Fund for Creative Equity. According to a post from Netflix back in February, “the Fund has already committed $14.5 million toward programs that help
LifeTagger, a business with the aim of transforming an organization’s information, service, and experience delivery, has announced its partnership for the third consecutive year with NOLAvate Black’s 5th annual Black Tech NOLA conference, to provide attendees with exclusive content. Black Tech NOLA is the largest convening of tech creatives in the south celebrating the intersection of tech, art, and culture. It was first launched in 2018 but in 2020, Black Tech NOLA received over 1100 registrants and participants from around the globe for its first-ever virtual event with talks, panel discussions, virtual
ANJEL Tech, a Black-owned cloud-based application that turns any smartphone into your personal body cam, has announced a historic partnership with 1 Million Madly Motivated Moms (1M4), an organization led by African American moms to address police brutality through legal action and legislative policy education. We previously interviewed the founder of ANJEL Tech, who told POCIT that he’d struggled to get attention from mainstream reporters and investors when it came to his app. The app in question has been described as an initiative that “could help protect minorities.” When activated, the
Balancing entrepreneurship and childcare can be a daunting task, made worse by the pandemic. The rising costs of childcare in the UK and the USA are forcing an increasing number of primary caregivers – the majority of whom are women – to juggle both business and caring for their children. Thousands of childcare centers that closed temporarily because of lockdowns are still at risk of shutting permanently. These centers tend to be low-margin businesses with low levels of cash reserves and may not be able to reopen due to the additional expenses
