According to the New York Times, federal civil rights prosecutors are now investigating Wells Fargo’s hiring practices. The launch comes weeks after we reported that some Wells Fargo managers had conducted fake interviews with Black and female job applicants. Seven current and former employees, including one former executive, told The Times that they were instructed to interview women and people of color for already filled roles. These efforts, they said, appeared to be a way to show a record of diversity efforts rather than actually hire diverse candidates. The current Wells
Jack Dorsey, the former CEO and co-founder of Twitter Inc and the founder of Block Inc, has teamed up with rapper Jay-Z to launch and self-fund The Bitcoin Academy. The 12-week program will take place in Brooklyn for Marcy House residents with the aim to provide the community with all the necessary tools to gain financial independence, inclusion, and literacy in the childhood place of Jay-Z. It will consist of a series of online and in-person classes focusing on Bitcoin, and the classes will take place twice per week. Notably, the participants of The
E-commerce platform Gander announced today the closing of a $4.2 million seed round co-led by Harlem Capital and Crossbeam Venture Partners. Gander, which collects and embeds user-generated video content into retail sites so shoppers can see what a product looks like in real life, was launched in late 2021. It also has a creator marketplace, which gives brands direct access to the video content. This round adds the startup’s founder Kimiloluwa Fafowora, 26, to the growing list of Black women who have raised $1 million or more in VC funding.
Calaxy, a Black-owned web3 social marketplace, has raised $26 million in strategic funding co-led by Animoca Brands and HBAR Foundation with support from Polygon. This raise follows a $7.5 million seed round in 2021 with investors like Animoca Brands, Red Beard Ventures, ArkStream Capital, NGC Ventures, and Genesis Block Ventures. The seed round also had support from NFL player Ezekiel Elliott, “The Bachelor” Matt James, and former PayPal head of Blockchain Strategy Jonathan Padilla, among others. Calaxy aims to build a new infrastructure that allows content creators, ranging from small influencers to big-time celebrities, to
Five to Nine, which makes event management software, has closed a $4.25 million seed round led by Black Ops Ventures. Other investors in the round include Slack Fund and Cleveland Avenue, with Mike Gamson, Sterling Road, and Concrete Rose Capital as repeat investors. The company’s software lets enterprises plan programs for their employee resource groups, which enable employees who share characteristics or experiences to come together, share resources, and connect. Jasmine Shells and Denise Umubyeyi launched the company in 2018 to help organizations manage, structure, and track employee events, meeting development programs, and Employee Resource Group (ERG) initiatives. “Five to
Lagos and San Francisco-based Klasha has received an additional $2.1 million to complete its $4.5 million seed round. The startup, which provides multiple products for the cross-border commerce space in Africa, raised this new financing from a group of international investors co-led by American Express Ventures, the strategic investment group of American Express. The round also included Global Ventures, the MENA-focused VC that has backed the likes of Tabby, Helium Health, and Paymob. Jess Anuna first founded Klasha in 2018. At the time, the company’s focus was to make it easier for
Snoop Dogg and his son, Cordell Broadusm, have become partners in the world’s first NFT restaurant group. Snoop’s Dr. Bombay’s Sweet Exploration, an immersive retail dessert experience based on his Bored Ape NFT and Dr. Bombay character, will soon open in the Los Angeles area under the Food Fighters Universe (FFU) umbrella. FFU was founded in March by Orange County entrepreneurs Andy Nguyen, Kevin Seo, and Phillip Huynh—the team behind Bored & Hungry, the world’s first NFT-themed restaurant. FFU is a collection of 10,000 unique food fighters on the eth blockchain. Each purchase will fund the world’s
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
International calling app Talk360, which enables people to make reliable and affordable calls to any landline or mobile phone worldwide, has secured $4 million in funding as it prepares to launch a new pan-African payment platform in mid-2022. The seed round of funding was led by leading African venture capital investor HAVAÍC, 4Di Capital, and several prominent fintech angel investors. Talk360, a leading Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) player in Africa, enables people to make international calls through its app for a fee. It is built so that only the
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, this week announced the news that it is linking up with the Canadian performer, The Weeknd, for his After Hours Til Dawn Tour to provide “an enhanced fan experience.” The so-called ‘experience will reportedly manifest in a number of ways, including via a collaboration with The Weeknd’s creative incubator HXOUSE to produce an exclusive NFT collection and co-branded branded merch. “Binance is all about the community, about people, about inclusion. I was impressed by their focus on users and innovative edge,” said The Weeknd. “It made perfect
