Billionaire philanthropist Robert F. Smith recently announced the launch of the Student Freedom Initiative, a program designed to provide paid internships to HBCU students. Robert F. Smith will launch the Student Freedom Initiative’s HELPS Program in partnership with financial regulation company Prudential Finance. The partnership will address Black students’ disproportionate financial loan burden, which often hinders their career progression. The program aims to provide science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) HBCU students with $1.8 million in microgrants, which will act as a contingent fund alongside their traditional college loans. Robert F. Smith, famously known
Black-owned serverless startup, Baselime, has raised $1.5M in pre-seed funding. The funding round, which Sequoia Capital led, also included venture capital firms Antler, Forward Partners, and Octopus Ventures. The London-based company, founded in 2021 by Boris Tane, works to reduce the challenges developers often experience. Businesses can embrace automated observability ecosystems through their platform, which is highly beneficial for remote teams. The platform also claims to offer highly flexible technology at a reduced cost by encouraging developers to run applications and manage servers on behalf of customers without needing to
San Francisco-based fintech company, TomoCredit, has raised $122 million in funding and debt financing. The funding round was led by Morgan Stanley’s Next Level Fund and included Morgan Stanley’s Next Level Fund, MasterCard, and debt from Silicon Valley Bank. The funding will help the platform expand its credit product offerings to help support immigrants with no credit history in the US. TomoCredit, co-founded in 2018 by Kristy Kim and Dmitry Kashlev, is a fintech platform dedicated to providing the next generation with a credit card designed to help millennials boost
Mexico City-based fintech platform, Arrenda, has raised $26.5 million in a pre-seed funding round of equity and debt. The funding round, which Fasanara Capital and Kube Ventures led, also included ODX Ventures, Toehold Ventures, Wharton Fintech, Lightspeed Venture Partners Scour Fund, PRMM Inmobiliaria, and a range of angel investors. Arrenda, founded in 2022 by Joe Merullo, is a revenue-based startup that works to provide market-specific insurance and financial products to the real estate markets and landlords of Latin America. Not only does it offer advance payments to landlords, but it
Financial giant, Mastercard, has officially announced the class of this year’s Start Path program, an award-winning engagement program aimed at providing global support and mentorship to the brightest late-stage startups. According to a press release, Mastercard selected three early-stage startups led by underrepresented founders and four late-stage fintech innovators looking to scale their businesses for this year’s program. “As we continue our eight-year legacy of successful collaboration with startups around the world through Start Path,” said Blake Rosenthal, executive vice president, Fintech & Segment Solutions at Mastercard. “The companies we selected are on
WNBA star turned software engineer, Neisha Butler, recently announced the opening of her educational center, S.T.E.A.M. Champs in New York, dedicated to kickstarting Brooklyn kids’ learning development in coding, robotics, and app development. The educational center in Downton Brooklyn specializes in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM). The establishment aims to nurture future industry leaders by giving them a head start in reading data and developing solutions to complex problems, all necessary skills needed to help kickstart their future careers. “We’re excited to bring quality STEM curriculum to the Brooklyn and
Black-owned tech platform, ColorStack, has announced the launch of its second annual Stacked Up Summit. The summit aims to equip Black and Latinx computer science students with the tools they need to pursue a career in tech successfully. The annual summit, which will take place from August 17th to August 19th this year, will feature a range of talks, panels, and networking events with professionals and recruiters from big tech companies like Netflix, Meta, and LinkedIn. In addition, the event, which caters explicitly to Black and Latinx computer science students, will include
Njeri Muhia teamed up with Steven Wamathai to shake up the VC industry. In a sector where VC and startup relationships are formal, the pair said that they hope to have relaxed connections with founders. After spending years in London, matching Kenyans in the diaspora with investment opportunities back home, and later on as a credit portfolio manager at Barclays bank, Muhia sought a greater challenge within Africa. Together with Wamathai, who has vast experience in the investment management industry during the middle of last year, they started an early-stage
“Try not to use the word minority, say underprivileged or underserved; otherwise, if you say minority, investors will make certain assumptions.” “What assumptions?” “Oh, you know…” That was an interaction between a first-time Black founder and a white venture capital (VC) investor who was supposed to be advising her. Speaking to POCIT, she said she felt several investors she had spoken to had an unconscious bias towards her as a founder and the audience she was targeting. While she understood POC markets were ‘small’ in her native country – on
Black-owned digital platform, InterApp, has raised $1.2 million in its pre-seed funding round. The funding round was led by Columbia-based investment firm WP Capital Group, an organization that focuses on emerging technologies for consumer engagement. InterApp Inc., co-founded in 2016 by CEO William Brown, is an image recognition app that aims to make augmented reality (AR) a necessary tool for consumers. Their work, specifically designed for graphic designers, transforms print into interactive AR experiences for consumers to enjoy. The platform transforms print packages and apparel graphics into augmented reality, ultimately transforming
