Sorare, the player-owned fantasy sports game leveraging NFTs, has welcomed Serena Williams as an advisor to its board of directors. One of the most iconic athletes, Williams is also an entrepreneur, brand builder, and investor at the forefront of sports and technology. Sorare is combining NFT collectibles with fantasy sports to drive long-term utility and value for NFTs on the platform and beyond, unlocking a new era of sports fandom on and off the field. Since it was founded in 2018, the company has experienced incredible demand and hypergrowth, increasing
Rapper Nas has joined US private equity firm Andreessen Horowitz and Alphabet Inc.’s Google in an investment round for Africa-focused mobile gaming platform – Carry1st. Carry1st, a South African publisher of social games and interactive content across Africa, has raised $20 million Series A from the investors. The startup, launched by Cordel Robbin-Coker, Lucy Hoffman and Tinotenda Mundangepfupfu in 2018, also received investments from Avenir and the founders of Chipper Cash, Sky Mavis and Yield Guild Games, took part. It wants to use this additional capital to scale interactive content across Africa, build the workforce and acquire new users. The
Ghanaian startup Float has picked up a significant round of funding with $17M already in the bag in the first few weeks of the year. The fintech which provides credit lines for businesses says the funding will be used to bolster its offerings and expand around the globe. The seed round was a mix of $7 million equity and $10 million debt. While Cauris provided debt financing, Tiger Global and JAM Fund, the investment firm of Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen co-led the equity bit. Other VC firms involved in the equity round include Kinfolk,
We’ve started a new weekly series looking at founders from different communities absolutely killing it in the tech space. Following on from our ‘Meet 3 Standout Latinx Founders Using Data And AR To Do Some Pretty Cool Things‘ feature piece – we’re now taking a deep dive into Black founders in fintech and blockchain that you should look out for this year. These financial technologies (fintech) companies use the internet, blockchain, and software technologies, as well as algorithms, to offer or facilitate financial services traditionally offered by banks. David Potter
Over the last year, I have been on the lookout for Latina founders, and I found them through Google searches, Twitter threads, and referrals. So this week, we’re taking a look at some amazing Latina entrepreneurs in tech and highlighting the work they’ve been doing for the past few years. I’ll aim to do a shortlist every week. Let’s go! Agustina Sartori, founder of GlamST, GlamST’s proprietary technology allows people to try on makeup through AR, representing the finishes, color, and texture of the products in a highly realistic and accurate
Angela Majette, a Bronx native, worked as a legal consultant for years before launching her own organization dedicated to helping her community. Her years of experience in the field allowed her to witness firsthand the struggles Black founders on their entrepreneurship journey experienced when it came to getting good counsel for a reasonable price. The struggles experienced by minorities – especially the Black community is what led her to launch Black Connect, an organization that aims to support Black-owned businesses with pro bono legal support and establish solid legal footing. Launched
Bfree, a Nigerian credit management fintech, has embarked on global expansion after raising $1.7 million in a pre-Series A round. It’s now on a massive recruitment drive for the 16 new markets in which it is setting up operations, including Ghana, India, Uganda, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Russia, Poland, Pakistan, and Indonesia. It was founded by Chukwudi Enyi, Moses Nmor, and Flosbach, who were reportedly looking to develop better, ethical, and tech-inspired debt-collection tools and processes after firsthand experience working for digital lenders in Nigeria. 4Di Capital, Octerra Capital, VestedWorld, Voltron Capital, Logos Ventures,
Paylend, a Kenyan fintech startup focused on providing access to finance and digitizing MSMEs in Kenya, announced it has raised $2 million seed investment. The funding came from Next Chymia Consulting HK Limited, an Asian-based company that provides global entities with blockchain applications, consultancy services, and training. Paylend’s mission is to support MSMEs across Africa to solve access to continuous capital while bridging the consumer data gap by connecting consumers to products and services. Paylend’s model enables consumer data collection that allows for a thorough understanding of consumer needs and
You should probably know what NFTs are by now since these three-letter words have been floating around our headlines, Twitter timelines, and TV screens for the past few weeks now. But for those of you who are behind on this latest trend – we’ll let you off and give you a little reminder. What is an NFT? NFT means a Non-fungible token. The best explanation I’ve seen for it is “Non-fungible” more or less means that it’s unique and can’t be replaced with something else. For example, a bitcoin is
A Black teenager from Prince George’s County, Maryland, has officially become the youngest glider pilot in the nation’s history.
