Black-owned venture capital firm Brown Venture Group announced that it had received a $1.5 million investment from the Bush Foundation. Brown Venture Group, co-founded in 2018 by Dr. Paul Campbell and Dr. Chris Brooks, is an investment firm committed to investing in BIPOC tech startups and founders. The firm aims to help all startups in its portfolio grow as a brand through investment capital, training, and professional networks. By focusing on excelling in tech entrepreneurship, Brown Venture Group hopes its investments will help bypass many of the racial biases that
Many startup cofounders have exciting stories to share about how they met. From bonding as college roommates or former colleagues to surprise encounters leading to entrepreneurial adventures but for some, that perfect cofounder is found through a match-making platform. Damilare Ogunleye is the co-founder and CEO of FoodLama. He runs the Google-backed startup with his cofounder – 18-year-old Santiago Schmitt. But how does the startup work? FoodLama is a free-to-install-and-use browser extension that simplifies online grocery shopping with preferences. By taking into account your household’s individual allergies, preferences, and needs,
Black-owned real estate tech startup, Rhove, has announced its new partnership with housing changemakers in New Orleans to promote economic inclusion. The partnership, which includes Forward Together New Orleans, The Mayor’s Fund, and The Greater New Orleans Housing Alliance (GNOHA), will provide a grant to fund credit to help 2,000 residents invest in commercial real estate using the Rhove app. Rhove, founded by Calvin Cooper, is a fintech company designed to empower everyone to invest in and own real estate. The company, located in Ohio, is on a mission to
Incredible Health, an award-winning job-matching platform for nurses, has closed an $80 million Series B funding round. The latest funding round was led by Base10 Partners, including investors Andreessen Horowitz and Obvious Ventures. To date, the digital marketplace has hit a staggering $1.65 billion valuation, making its founder, Dr Iman Abuzeid, one of the very few Black female founders spearheading a unicorn company. Abuzeid founded the nurse-hiring startup in 2017 to act as the bridge between healthcare workers and industry hires, matching “the right nurse with the right role at
Tech startup ImIn has further closed $1 million in seed funding to expand its employee scheduling app. Black-led venture capital firm Collab Capital led the funding round. ImIn, founded by Chime Solutions exec Lauren Wilson, is a staffing software platform aimed at helping the call center industry. After seven years of working at her father’s high-volume call center business, Wilson came up with the idea to launch her app after identifying the missed opportunities both companies faced because of a familiar yet widely accepted industry challenge: absenteeism. According to a 2017 US Department
Kimberly Bryant, the co-founder and former CEO of Black Girls CODE, has spoken up after officially being removed from her leadership position. Bryant founded Black Girls CODE in 2011 to introduce young girls of color to computer science and increase the number of women of color in the digital technology space. Today, the nonprofit is a household name with chapters across the US and other countries. However, Bryant reported waking up last December to discover that she could no longer access her work email. She soon received a letter informing
Black-owned digital app, ShearShare, has raised $2.3M in a seed funding round led by Fearless Fund. The round also included Level Up Ventures, New York Ventures, Gaingels, Chloe Capital, Portfolia, Pipline Angels, Bacon Family Trust, and ACV Auctions co-founder Jack Greco. The additional funding brings ShearShare’s total funding amount to $6.2M. Known to many as the “HairBnB,” ShearShare has created an easily accessible mobile app that provides licensed beauty and barbering professionals with flexible and affordable spaces to rent. In addition, entrepreneurs can use these spaces with no-term leases or commission fees.
The pre-seed fund, Visible Hands, has officially launched the second cohort of its “Visionaries Accelerator” program. The initiative, which aims to support overlooked and underrepresented founders, welcomed 51 new founders to its flagship program. The program, which will take place from September to December, will see each company work full-time towards building their business, with financial support from the Visible Hands team. Each founder will receive a starting investment of $25,000. Throughout the program, they will have the chance to earn additional assets of up to $150,000 as they progress.
Billionaire Silicon Valley mogul, Adam Neumann, has bounced back from the spectacular failure of WeWork to become the face behind a $1 billion residential real estate company, Flow. According to Bloomberg, venture capital powerhouse Andreessen Horowitz has pledged approximately $350 million to kickstart Neumann’s newest venture. This investment will be the largest check written for single funding round, in the fund’s history, according to the New York Times – and it’s got everyone on the internet talking. Failing upwards Neumann’s new business venture comes three years after the world witnessed the meteoric
Black-owned digital bookkeeping platform, Pastel, has raised $5.5 million in a seed funding round. The round led by pan-African venture capital firm TLcom Capital also included other VC firms such as Global Founders Capital, Golden Palm Investments, DFS Labs, Ulu Ventures and Plug and Play, and Soma Cup. Pastel, co-founded in 2020 by Abuzar Royesh, Olamide Oladeji, and Izunna Okonkwo, is a platform designed to help build digital tools to provide a solution to issues small businesses across Africa face. The platform’s primary goal is to unlock the potential of
