Dennis Cail started Dallas-based Zirtue, a fintech platform that helps people lend money to family or friends at 0 percent interest for terms of less than one year, or 5 percent for longer-term loans, in 2016. The app “helps keep the lights on, the car running,” Cail says. According to the Federal Reserve, in 2019 the typical White family in the U.S. had eight times the wealth of the typical Black family. “Less wealth means Black Americans are underrepresented in the market for financial products and services,” states a 2020 report from McKinsey. Here are four more Black
Casava, the self-described “Nigeria’s first 100% digital insurance company”, has raised a $4 million pre-seed round. It was first founded by Bode Pedro. Before starting Casava, Pedro ran VisaCover, an insurance brokerage company, in 2014. The idea for Casava came while VisaCover provided an alternative in the auto insurance market by allowing drivers of Uber, which was one of its partners, to make weekly insurance payments instead of quarterly or yearly payments insurance partners before it operated, according to TechCrunch. He left the VisaCover company in 2016 and Pedro brought on Olusegun
If you’re interested in supporting Black voices in the gaming industry, look no further than these three titles that are either out now or currently in development. Here POCIT has made a list of three Black developers who’ve created their own video games. Shawn Alexander Shawn is the game designer, animator, visual artist, writer, and founder of Nuchallenger, an independent games and culture studio. Before creating his game – Treachery in Beatdown City – Shawn worked for almost five years at Rockstar games, where he worked on GTA IV Complete,
Black and LGBTQ+ travelers are leading the charge to build inclusive technologies that help their communities travel safely. One such digital program is the Green Book Project, which offers city guides from the perspective of Black travelers. It’s an app from software engineer Christian Lowe created that allows travelers to determine how inclusive a business is through a unique search system based on how users identify themselves, indicated by a hashtag they place on their reviews. For example, a queer vegan traveler could filter a restaurant’s reviews for insight into how
Lame, TikTok’s second most-followed creator with 130 million followers, has partnered with Hugo Boss to star in a campaign surrounding its re-brand. Lame will also co-design a capsule collection with the fashion label as part of a multi-year pact. BOSS’ Rebrand The iconic brand has drafted supermodels, social media sensations, and world-class athletes for a celebrity campaign designed to usher in a new era for core brand BOSS after nearly 50 years. Lame will appear in the campaign alongside Hailey Bieber, Kendall Jenner, model Joan Smalls, South Korean actor Lee Min-ho, rapper Future, boxer Anthony Joshua, tennis pro Matteo
A Toronto-based organization dubbed the Black Professionals in Tech Network is launching a new platform for recruitment, events, and networking to encourage companies to hire Black talent. The network has inked partnerships with many large companies such as Toronto-Dominion Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, and Microsoft since it was founded in 2018. Its membership has now surpassed 50,000 Black workers, primarily across Canada and the United States – up from just 20,000 a year ago. But on Tuesday, it revealed that it would be launching a new global platform called obsidi.com during
Alejandro Cordero, a professor of electronics and the CEO & Founder of Innova Space, which is reportedly the only company in Latin America that specializes in the design and development of PocketQube pico-satellites. Innova Space was born from an educational project led by Cordero and his seventh-year students. Cordero had challenged his students of Technical High School, which is dubbed number five in the city of Mar del Plata, Argentina with designing a satellite in 2019. In the process, Innova Space received an offer from a startup accelerator. An investment of $100,000
Across industries, there’s a growing demand and prevalence of mentorship programs, but for people of color who are carving their own paths, mentors remain difficult to find. Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers are among the most valuable, fastest-growing, and highest-paying in the country, yet Latinas account for only 3% of the industry. That’s why we want to make sure you have the right resources and knowledge to help you land your dream gig. Latinas in Tech was founded in 2014 by Gretel Perera and Rocío Medina with the hopes of creating
Nestcoin, a Black-owned company founded last November with a mission to build, operate, invest in web3 applications and make crypto accessible to everyone, has raised $6.45 million pre-seed. The company’s products cut across Decentralized Finance (DeFi), media, digital art, and gaming. Described by its founder as a venture collective, it launched its media arm called Breach last year to create bite-sized and informative crypto content for the average African. It also set up Metaverse Magna (MVM), a gaming guild that introduces users to the world of play-to-earn crypto-powered games like Axie
James Manyika is reportedly Google’s first VP of technology and society. But this shiny new role comes with huge responsibilities, as he is tasked with shaping and sharing Google’s views on how technology affects societies. The new appointment comes as Google battles different antitrust lawsuits, increasingly tougher regulations, and protests over its treatment of employees, and this appointment can be seen as the tech giant’s attempt to address these issues directly. Mayinka is a Zimbabwean national and according to his LinkedIn profile, he obtained his first degree in Electrical Engineering from the University
