Black Lives Matter (BLM) co-founder Opal Tometi has urged the tech sector to take robust action against perpetuating racism in systems such as facial recognition. “A lot of the algorithms, a lot of the data is racist,” U.S. activist Tometi, who co-founded BLM in 2013, told Reuters on the sidelines of Lisbon’s Web Summit. “We need tech to truly understand every way it (racism) shows up in the technologies they are developing,” she said. Her comments come just a day after Facebook announced it was shutting down its facial recognition
The technology industry’s academic and professional spaces have a long reputation of exclusivity and discrimination that has led to an industry that is predominantly all white and male – but some people are working hard to change this picture. POCIT sat down with Rose Robinson, Executive Director of Center for Minorities and People with Disabilities in IT (CMD-IT), for an in-depth conversation on the barriers facing people of color with disabilities in tech. Robinson has more than 25 years under her belt. Her role at CMD-IT means she can use
Black-Owned Chicago AI Startup Lands $100K In Latest ‘Northwestern Mutual Black Founder’ Accelerator
A Chicago startup that uses AI to help people better leverage their professional network is part of the newest cohort of startups selected as part of the Northwestern Mutual’s Black Founder Accelerator program. 4Degrees, led by CEO Ablorde Ashigbi and CTO David Vandegrift, will receive a $100,000 investment as part of the 12-week program. It will also work alongside Northwestern Mutual and its accelerator partner gener8tor to help grow its business. The company, launched by Ashigbi and Vandegrift, two former investors at Pritzker Group Venture Capital, back in 2017 was
Electric vehicle startup BasiGo has today announced the launch of its operations in Nairobi, and the buses will come in 25 and 36-seater capacities, with a range of about 250 kilometers. The startup plans to sell locally assembled electric buses using parts from China’s EV maker BYD Automotive; the company said while announcing it had raised $1 million in pre-seed funding. It is also planning to enter other markets within the East Africa region after establishing ground in Kenya. BasiGo is backed by several investors, including Climate Capital, a Silicon Valley venture capital
Facebook is planning to shut down its face-recognition system and delete faceprints of more than 1 billion people. At the present moment – more than a third of Facebook’s daily active users have opted to have their faces recognized by the social network’s system. That’s about 640 million people. But according to AP – it recently began scaling back its use of facial recognition after introducing it more than a decade ago. The move comes years after organizations and people of color complained about how problematic AI and facial recognition
An African cross-border payments company has raised $150 million in a Series C extension round led by Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange platform FTX. Chipper Cash, founded in 2018 by Ham Serunjogi and Maijid Moujaled, is a no-fee peer-to-peer cross-border payment service in Africa. Users can accept payments in Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Africa, and Kenya through their app. Chipper Cash‘s investment comes barely six months after it closed its first Series C round of $100 million, led by SVB Capital, the corporate venture capital arm of SVB Financial Group. Deciens Capital, Ribbit Capital, Bezos
The banking institution has pledged $10 million to one of the leading private liberal arts Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the South. According to a press release, the funds are a part of Bank of America’s Mayor’s Racial Equity Initiative in the Charlotte, NC region. It includes a $1.25 billion five-year commitment to create more economic opportunities and push racial equality within local communities. In an official statement, Kieth Cockrell, President of Bank of America Charlotte, said: “Our long-term relationship with JCSU has set the foundation for this critical moment – a
Twiga Foods has raised $50M in its Series C round to take its mission to expand food and retail distribution across the African continent. The firm, which launched in 2014, uses technology to build supply chains in food and retail distribution. It claims to simplify the supply chain between fresh food producers, FMCG manufacturers, and retailers through a B2B e-commerce platform and it currently has over 100,000 registered customers and delivers to 10,000 every day. Twiga now plans to use the funding to test out a model they’re developing “to reduce the
Byron Allen, the 1980s comedian-turned-media-mogul, aims to acquire Tegna Inc in an $8 billion deal. The news comes months after it was reported that Allen’s Weather Channel’s business had taken a hit due to the pandemic as the TV advertising dried up, leading to piling debt load. Tegna, formerly owned by Gannett Co Inc, is a chain of 64 TV and radio stations that span 50 markets across the U.S. The deal could significantly boost Allen Media Group, which has amassed 33 local TV network affiliate stations. Allen — who came to
A sequel on the piece of Black founders profitable without Venture capital. Not all startups reach the promised land of VC funding. Not all startups require VC funding to be successful. With the odds stacked against Black and Brown entrepreneurs, they typically need to find other ways to innovate and grow. Money isn’t always easy to come by. Bootstrapping means launching and growing your startup using your personal financial resources. See how these Black women founders left behind the “scale no matter what” mentality. Instead, they built their startups into successful, profitable
