Thirteen Lune, a direct-to-consumer beauty platform that was launched last year in LA with $1 million in seed funding from Diddy and Gwyneth Paltrow, has just announced $3 million in additional seed funding. The round was led by Fearless Fund with participation by Capstar Ventures, Fab Ventures, Swiftarc Beauty, and Gaingels. This round brings funding raised to date to $4.5 million. The Fearless Fund is a venture firm that was founded by women of color and is making its mark by focusing exclusively on backing women of color. Thirteen Lune
Software developer Charlene Hunter is on a mission to close the diversity gap in the tech industry and is set on helping other Black women get their foot in the door. East Londoner Charlene founded Coding Black Females back in 2017 after feeling fed up with being the only Black woman in her role at her company. Her non-profit network is a community that uplifts Black female developers and helps them find opportunities. Coding Black Females, which Charlene runs alongside co-CTOs Tanya Powell and Efua Akumanyi and their team, has become a
The Black-owned Nourish + Bloom Market is about to disrupt traditional grocery stores as it becomes the first minority-owned autonomous grocery store in the US. It’s set to open on December 17th in Fayetteville, Georgia, featuring “frictionless shopping.” This means that customers will be able to walk in, grab what they need, and leave without waiting in line or stopping to scan and pay, especially helpful in this “new normal” post-pandemic world. They will simply have to scan a QR Code from Nourish + Bloom’s app that connects to their digital wallet
Viral tweets of missing Black children, police brutality and misconduct have continued to dominate this year, with some posts leading to re-opened police investigations and discoveries. But it’s widely known that there is a huge disparity when it comes to media coverage on issues impacting minorities. This problem has been raised countless times and it’s one that James Samuel, founder of Anjel, knows far too well. In an interview over a Zoom call, the father of two boys told POCIT that he’d struggled to get attention from mainstream reporters and
Google is taking applications for its seventh ‘Google for Startups’ accelerator program. Applications for the three-month virtual accelerator program are now open to technology startups located in Algeria, Botswana, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. The accelerator program launched in 2017 is designed to help Startups scale their solutions across the continent. Successful applicants from Seeds to Series A will gain access to free support alongside Google’s networks, advanced technology, experts, and mentors through virtual boot camps every
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
