Rising TikTok star, Shermann “Dilla” Thomas (@6figga_dilla) has partnered with digital coupon company, Groupon, to celebrate and support National Black Business Month. The annual celebration of Black businesses every August began in 2014 and aims to help ease the strain that minority-owned businesses experience, from macroeconomic challenges such as inflation to workforce shortages. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, approximately two million companies are owned by BIPOC owners. Therefore, August is a time to show Black-owned businesses appreciation by encouraging individuals to shop, share and support their local Black businesses. Rising TikToker,
Instagram has launched a user survey in partnership with YouGov to understand better how people from different communities experience the app. The initiative, which highlights the company’s efforts to build a more “fair and equitable” platform, will prompt users to participate in an optional survey about their race and ethnicity. According to Instagram, information from the survey will help them better understand different communities’ experiences with the app. The survey will show up at the top of users’ feed and will lead directly to a YouGov survey. According to the
Black Professionals in Tech (BPTN) has officially made its debut in Zambia. The community network, which currently has more than 60,000 Black members worldwide, has created a global network for professionals working within North America and across countries worldwide. BPTN’s new network, which went live at the Bongo Hive Technology Lusaka earlier this week, connects large tech companies with Black tech professionals. It provides employment opportunities to members and offers mentorship and educational resources to help entrepreneurs develop long-standing, successful careers within the tech industry. The platform enables tech giants to hire
Is there anything Keke can’t do? Actress and entertainer, Keke Palmer, has officially become the host of Meta’s ‘Are We There Yet?’, a digital series that focuses on shining a light on the developments currently taking place within the Metaverse. According to the outlet, the new series will see the entertainer sit down with creators, educators, and experts “to find out where the metaverse stands now and what’s coming in the future.” In addition, this video series will showcase how the Metaverse can help “bring people together like never before.”
San Francisco-based fintech company, TomoCredit, has raised $122 million in funding and debt financing. The funding round was led by Morgan Stanley’s Next Level Fund and included Morgan Stanley’s Next Level Fund, MasterCard, and debt from Silicon Valley Bank. The funding will help the platform expand its credit product offerings to help support immigrants with no credit history in the US. TomoCredit, co-founded in 2018 by Kristy Kim and Dmitry Kashlev, is a fintech platform dedicated to providing the next generation with a credit card designed to help millennials boost
They’ve been spat on, called racist names, harassed in grocery stores, and violently attacked. Since the emergence of COVID-19, some combination of misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theory has been weaponized to target people perceived to be Chinese. The violent consequences of online disinformation targeting Asian American and Pacific Islander communities demonstrate the power of the internet to stoke racial resentment. Misinformation, disinformation, and online hate speech have led to widespread violence in India, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka in the past several years. Conspiracy theories targeting the AAPI community have caused upswells in hate crimes
On July 12, New York City Hall launched the first-ever Digital Games Industry Council to discuss supporting talent in that space. Participants included Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer and several members of the mayor’s office. The council came together to discuss how to expand the city’s digital games industry. The digital committee, designed to build a robust talent pipeline for talent in the digital games industry, aims to attract game development studios across five boroughs and help businesses operate and thrive in New York City. The meeting occurred following the announcement
Universal Pictures’ “NOPE,” directed and written by Jordan Peele, is one of this year’s most anticipated movies, and it has expanded into virtual reality. The multi-verse VR experience, which has premiered ahead of the film’s release this July, allows viewers to take an adventure in a virtual reality video game based on the horror film. Starring Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer, the movie follows the story of two siblings residing in an isolated town that just witnessed a mysterious and abnormal event. In the most recent trailer, they discover that
Senegal-based fintech startup, Wave, raises a syndicated loan of $91.5 million from International Finance Corporation (IFC), Blue Orchard, Symbiotics, responsAbility, and Lendable. Wave Mobile Money, founded by Drew Durbin and Lincoln Quirk in 2018, has quickly grown to become the largest mobile money remittance in Senegal. In 2021, the company closed the most extensive Series A round for an African fintech at $200 million. The digital fintech platform uses technology to build a radically inclusive and affordable financial network. As a result, Wave has built a life-changing economic infrastructure for
Social media giant Facebook is on a mission to create some of the most innovative forms of technology in society today. The platform recently announced the launch of its new AI translator, No Language Left Behind (NLLB-200), the first multilingual machine that can translate up to 200 languages without relying on English data. The NLLB-200 aims to help people better connect in society today by eliminating the language barrier. Meta’s AI model uses one of the world’s fastest AI supercomputers and is already used to translate content on Facebook and Wikipedia.
