Many of us find ourselves drawn to the allure of the tech industry, seeking a path that promises fulfilment and stability. For Nigeria-born data professional Ifeoma Igwe, who first moved to the UK seven years ago to study, this journey led her through unexpected twists and turns. In a candid interview with POCIT, Ifeoma shared her experiences of entering the tech industry, facing layoffs, and discovering her unique path that blends literature with tech with her text-to-speech app, Easy Edit. Joining the Tech Industry Igwe studied Economics and Management as
Black-owned SquadTrip has announced it has successfully secured $1.5 million in funding to revolutionize group travel. Making group travel easy SquadTrip is an automated payment solution for large and small groups, making booking and payments easy for group trips. Their online platform allows users to save time managing group travel by creating trip sites, automating guest billing and keeping track of all traveller logistics from one place. It is the first travel platform targeting millennials with flexible payment instalments, Apple Pay checkout and promo codes. The company was founded by
Black tech entrepreneur Luke Cooper aims to raise $50 million by November for his Baltimore-based venture capital firm, Latimer Ventures. Latimer Ventures Latimer Ventures, named in honor of Lewis Latimer, an African American inventor born to fugitive slaves, is a venture capital firm focused on helping the next generation of Black and Hispanic enterprise SaaS unicorns. They source the best seed deals from diverse managers and connect them with tech startups. Cooper founded Latimer Ventures in 2022 to address the lack of capital available to entrepreneurs of color. He plans to
Sallie Mae, a private student lending company, has acquired critical assets of the top scholarship search app, Scholly. Founding Scholly Scholly is a Black-founded industry-leading scholarship search app and platform created by Christopher Gray. During his last few months at high school, Gray was set on attending college, but due to price, he had to search for scholarships for hours in the library. He eventually received $1.3 million in scholarships from organization such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation to study finance and entrepreneurship at Drexel
Pryce Adade Yebesi is the 23-year-old co-founder and COO of Utopia Labs, a startup on a mission to bridge the gap between crypto and traditional payment systems, and ultimately, create a new internet economy. Recently, Utopia Labs raised an impressive $23 million, making Yebesi one of the youngest Black founders to achieve such a milestone. Driving the adoption of crypto payments Utopia Labs’ founders Pryce Adade Yebesi, Kaito Cunningham, Jason Chong, and Alexander Wu first met on Discord and Twitter. The quad was brought together by an interest in Decentralized
Materials Nexus founder Jonathan Bean has joined the small number of Black people in the UK who have been able to raise over £1 million for their startups. Reducing the cost of going green Green technologies, like wind turbines and electric vehicles, hold great promise for a cleaner future. We need to enhance their material components to make them even more effective. However, this often involves heavy mining for rare-earth metals and precious metals. Jonathan Bean, a UK-based theoretical physicist from the University of Cambridge, founded Materials Nexus in 2020
Blair Matthews, a Howard alumnus from Zanzibar, and Giuliana Zaccardelli founded a digital health startup with a mission to provide fertility services to families. Zuri Fertility Zuri Fertility was launched in honor of Infertility Awareness Month as a personal digital fertility clinic in June, Zuri meaning good and beautiful in Swahili. They provide personalized fertility care with an online questionnaire to meet each individual need, a home testing tracker for both partners involved, a message center, and a larger community for the couple to get support from others. It also
Maria Watkins, a 64-year-old HBCU graduate, and former social worker, founded RightThereCorportation and has launched the first ever Black-owned app, RTC ProTech, with a 24/7 call center to minimize police brutality and hate crimes. RTC Protech App RightThere Corporation advocates that both innocent citizens and police officers return home safely. While they support Law Enforcement in their duties to serve and protect communities, they are firmly against police misconduct and the lack of transparency between the Police Departments and the community, along with the lack of de-escalation training. “All individuals
American rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs has launched an e-commerce platform Empower Global, allowing consumers to discover and buy products created and sold by Black entrepreneurs. “My mission has always been to empower Black entrepreneurs and create more opportunities for them to access the resources, tools, and support needed to build successful businesses,” said Sean “Diddy” Combs, Chairman of Combs Global, in a press release. Empower Global Empower Global is an immersive e-commerce experience offering products from Black-owned businesses. With a focus on culture and community, Empower Global aims to create
Yesterday, Google for Startups announced the 46 U.S. recipients of this year’s Black and Latino Founders Fund. The participants receive $150,000 in equity-free cash to help fuel their business, sales, and fundraising training, technical support from Google mentors, up to $100,000 in Google Cloud credits, and mental health coaching from a team of Black and Latino therapists. Over the past month, Google has welcomed 99 Black Founders Fund recipients in the U.S., Africa, Europe, and Brazil. Here are some of the recipients chosen from the U.S. Meet some of the
