Former NFL player Gerome Sapp’s fintech startup, Rares, has just earned $4 million in a seed funding round. MaC Venture Capital led the round on October 11, and other participants included Cake Ventures, Portfolia Rising America Funds I and II, Evolution VC, W Fund, and Gaingels, according to a press release. Launched in April of 2021 by the former NFL player, Rares offers its users fractional ownership through “rare, high-priced sneakers.” The platform’s mission is to give back to the Black community by providing access to the sneaker market “by
Singer-songwriter Mariah Carey has teamed up with cryptocurrency platform Gemini to inspire more women to get into investing. The app founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss helps people buy, sell, and store their bitcoin and cryptocurrency. The star will be gifting fans $20 in the form of bitcoin when users sign up with the code “MARIAH.” A portion of the trades will be allocated toward Black Girls CODE, a nonprofit on a mission to train one million Black girls on coding to increase their involvement in the digital arena by 2040. “It’s
Coinbase and UnitedMasters, a company that distributes music, have signed a deal to allow artists to receive their payments in cryptocurrencies. The Black-owned company, founded by Steve Stoutes, is now one of the first to offer, according to a report by Bloomberg. The partnership’s goal is to “empower independent artists by giving them transparency, equity, and control over their earnings.” Payments are set to be made through Coinbase’s payroll product. UnitedMasters stressed that with this new means of receiving payments, the music artists can now participate in a more equitable
An African startup that helps connect consumers’ bank accounts to financial applications has raised a $15 million Series A round. Tiger Global led Mono’s round. The firm also had participation from new investors Target Global, General Catalyst, and SBI Investment. New investors were joined by existing ones, including Entree Capital, Lateral Capital, Golden Palm Investments, Acuity VC, and Ingressive Capital, bringing Mono’s total raise to a little over $17.5 million since launching last year, reported TechCrunch. Launched in August 2020, the company streamlines various financial data in a single API for companies
A fintech startup helping the Black community get financial freedom has reportedly reached its latest milestone of paying over $20 million in consumer debt. Qoins is currently attacking the $1.3 trillion worth of student loan debt and $951 Billion of credit card debt in the US. Users download the app from the iOS App Store or Google Play. You add your name, phone number, and email, then the accounts that you want Qoins to take change from and add to. The app monitors your checking, or “funding” account, for regular charges and rounds
A Facebook-backed subsea communications cable is set to become the world’s longest – directly connecting three continents — Africa, Europe, and Asia. On Tuesday, the major tech firm announced that the 2Africa cable would now extend more than 45,000 kilometers (27,960 miles) once it’s completed. The 8,000-kilometer extension will see 2Africa become the most extended subsea cable system in the world upon completion, Facebook said. This means it will also beat the current record set by the SEA-ME-WE 3 line that stretches 39,000 km and connects 33 countries across South East Asia,
Yellow Card, an African Bitcoin exchange that recently announced a $15 million Series A funding, is one of the continent’s leading trailblazers in cryptocurrency. Its most recent round was led by Valar Ventures, Third Prime, and Castle Island Ventures. Square, Coinbase Ventures, and Blockchain.com Ventures. Now Yellow Card plans to use its funding to grow its team, launch new products, and expand to more African countries across the continent. According to Forbes, the announcement makes it the most considerable funding by a B2C crypto exchange in Africa. The firm was first launched in 2018 in Nigeria
Startup Showdown is a unique opportunity for early-stage startups to present to well-known investors and innovators in the tech ecosystem as they look to take their company to the next level. All finalists will get the chance to pitch to VC investors but only one startup founder will walk away with $120,000 to expand their business. Hosted monthly by Panoramic Ventures, there are six open application periods and 12 events each year. September’s ‘showdown’ will be hosted live in Miami on Thursday and broadcast globally as a fully hybrid event. “Startup
Singer-songwriter Doja Cat is taking the NFT world by storm and outselling major investor Jay Z as her single edition NFT sells for $188k – becoming the most oversized auctioned item in Tezos history. Doja first announced her first non-fungible token (NFT) collection earlier this month with green NFT marketplace OneOf. OneOf is built on the Tezos blockchain, recognized as an “energy efficient proof-of-stake network,” according to the company‘s website. It also claims to offer some of the most affordable transaction fees for users looking to tap into the world
Nigeria and San Francisco-based start-up, Klasha, has just announced its partnership with OpenCart, an all-in-one e-commerce builder that provides businesses with the tools to create and launch an online store. Klasha, first launched in 2018 by Jess Anuna and Kemi Oritsejafor, specializes in helping merchants worldwide sell online to Africa and receive payments in local currency. The new partnership means that OpenCart merchants can now sell more and accept payments online from customers across the continent while enjoying “superfast last-mile delivery to customers across the continent within 10 days.” Merchants who
