A £3 million cash fund for black founder-led tech businesses has been announced by Google. The Black Founders Fund, running for its second year, will be awarded to innovative European tech startups run by black founders. Recipients will need to demonstrate how they’re using technology to solve everyday problems. In return, they will receive up to $100,000, plus $200,000 in credit to use towards Google’s cloud services and advertising support, and mentoring by industry experts. “The UK is one of the most start-up-friendly environments in the world. Yet, Black start-up founders
Only a small percentage of Black founders in the UK received VC funding between 2009 to 2019 — and none so far have received late-stage funding. But 2021 proved to be fruitful, with initiatives like Google’s Black founders’ – and others – awarding Black and minority startup founders for their innovations. One such founder, who received backing, is Erika Brodnock, the cofounder of Kami, a parental support platform that gives parents access to expert advice via a mobile app. The startup received a $67k grant from the BFF in June
Karl Olutokun Toriola, a telecommunications engineer who is currently serving as the Chief Executive Officer of MTN Nigeria, announced that in an effort to aid the citizens of Ukraine, MTN Nigeria has announced that they have made all the calls to and from Ukraine free. MTN Group Limited, formerly M-Cell, is a South African multinational mobile telecommunications company, operating in many African and Asian countries. Its head office is in Johannesburg. “We understand that some of our customers in Ukraine have experienced challenges to contact their loved ones. As a result, we
Thousands of Africans studying engineering and other subjects in Ukraine are desperate to leave as Russia invades the country. Many of them are using social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter to keep people updated on their struggles to return back home. One Nigerian Twitter user said she and other students from the West African country were stopped by Polish border guards when attempting to flee. In her video, viewed over a million times, a crowd can be seen pleading with guards, who are standing with leveled weapons. Some,
Karin Fuentesová started off her career in the accounting sector, where she worked for 13 years. While working there, she observed how much time is wasted by people doing mundane tasks, such as manual data entry of invoices into accounting systems. After taking notes, Fuentesová launched Digitoo, which automates manual bookkeeping processes. Founded in 2019, the founder struggled to find investors but in 2021, it raised €900k in seed funding from Czech investors Kaya VC and Nation 1. For Fuentesová this was a huge success because only 46% of founders raise more than
Up to £23 million in government funding will create more AI and data conversion courses, helping young people from underrepresented groups including women, black people and people with disabilities join the UK’s world-leading Artificial Intelligence (AI) industry. Up to two thousand scholarships for master AI conversion courses, which enable graduates to do further study courses in the field even if their undergraduate course is not directly related, will create a new generation of experts in data science and AI. The UK has a long history in AI, from codebreaker Alan
Social Chain founder Steven Bartlett and Furqan Rydhan, founding CTO of Bebo and AppLovin, have just launched a software startup for web3 projects. Announcing the news on Twitter, Barlett said: “BIG NEWS: Today I’m announcing the launch of my new company, third web! Web3, NFT’s, and blockchain technology is going to impact every single industry and every single job. “We’ve built the platform that makes it incredibly easy to build web3 applications in a matter of clicks.” Thirdweb reportedly launched its free tools three months ago for developers to build,
Europe is “solidifying its place as a global tech power”, according to Atomico’s annual State of European Tech 2021 report. However, research still shows women and minorities are not being given enough investment. European tech is projected to cross the $100B milestones of capital invested in a single year, close to 3 times the level in 2020, reported Dealroom. The total number of tech companies that have scaled to $1B+ in Europe has jumped from 223 last year to 321. Large rounds ($250M+) are now the norm in Europe —
Less than half of Britain’s Black business owners – 43 percent – trust banks to support their interests, a new survey has revealed. The report, entitled ‘Black British In Business and Proud’, highlights the issue of structural racism in terms of accessing capital, and its impact on Black business owners. The research, which was sponsored by Lloyds Bank and undertaken by Savanta, surveyed 808 participants from Black communities in Britain – 345 of whom were Black business owners. It revealed that Black business owners are 21% more likely to be self-financed than
Like many industries, the tech sector still has some way to go in addressing diversity and bias issues and although there has been some progress with big companies like Google creating initatives specifically for minority communities – the work shouldn’t and doesn’t stop there. After diverse intake in companies – what roles are they being given, the salary disparity once in the role, the treatment among colleagues and the handling of racism allegations. We’ve heard countless of stories of Black employees and their allies being sidelined for speaking out against
