Akash Nigam, the co-founder and CEO of leading avatar company Genies, is spearheading the adoption of ChatGPT within his organization. According to Business Insider, Nigam is spending $2,400 a month on ChatGPT Plus accounts for his 120 employees to cut costs and unlock new levels of productivity. “I’m a pretty frugal, stingy person,” Nigam told the Business Insider. “But in my mind, this is for the health and growth of the company.” By automating monotonous tasks, such as answering coding queries, creating technical roadmaps, and generating creative briefs, Nigam says
True, one of the largest executive search firms in the world, has announced it is acquiring Jopwell, a hiring platform focused on advancing the careers of Black, Latinx and Native American students and early-to-mid-career professionals. According to a press release, Jopwell will complement the executive-focused DEI efforts of True Search and AboveBoard, an inclusive executive platform and community). Jopwell co-founders and execs Ryan Williams and Porter Braswell will continue to build Jopwell as a business unit within True. The story behind Jopwell Williams and Braswell started Jopwell after meeting at Goldman
Stemuli, a Black woman-owned edtech company providing AI-driven game-based learning through its educational metaverse, has announced the merger of infinity.careers and Oppti into Stemuli. Immersive education A lack of engagement in K-12 classrooms today is resulting in math and science scores being at an all-time low. This creates long-lasting negative impacts not only for the students themselves but also for their communities and the national economy. Stemuli reports that we facing a loss of $8.5 trillion in potential earnings because students are not prepared for the workforce that awaits them.
SHENIX® is an innovative fintech company built by Latinas/x, for Latinas/x, to close the wealth gap by providing culturally relevant financial services. Created by Chicago-based entrepreneurs Olga Camargo, Juan Carlos Avila, and Patricia Mota, the web-based app provides financial education, career planning, and salary negotiation resources through a unique digital experience that prioritizes the Latina cultural mindset. After selecting the investment services they need, users are prompted to answer a short survey about their financial and career goals. Immediately after the survey, users get a customized budget recommendation and the
EVEN, a creative platform that enables artists to sell their music directly to fans, has closed a $2.2 million seed round led by CSA Partners. Mag Rodriguez founded the platform last year to help Black and brown artists retain equity in their creative work. The blockchain-based direct-to-consumer platform allows artists to sell their music directly to their fans before uploading their music to streaming platforms. When fans purchase music, they can get access to it one to two weeks before they drop on streaming platforms, as well as exclusive content,
Described as The Amazing Race meets Shark Tank, RoadPitch is the Black-owned program connecting Black tech founders with investors across the US. The brainchild of Barley Sober founder Rohan Brown and electrical engineer Meagan Turner, the program takes Black tech founders on weeklong trips to pitch to investors in cities they aren’t native to. The pair met virtually in 2022 while coordinating StartupBus, a national hackathon on wheels. Getting Black founders in the room “Because of the pandemic, a lot of people have gotten accustomed to sending over a deck
Massachusetts-based Black-led startups are getting a $100 million boost from MassMutual’s second MM Catalyst Fund (MMCF). MassMutual announced that it is adding $100 million to its MMCF. The fund will continue to make investments in startups led by Black and historically overlooked founded-companies in the company’s home state of Massachusetts. MMCF will also invest selectively with fund managers in MassMutual’s First Fund Initiative, which focuses on first-time fund managers from Black, Latine, and Indigenous backgrounds. Building on past success The MMCF has backed 16 companies across various industries since its
London-based healthcare jobs marketplace platform, Nolea Health, has secured £1 million ($1.2 million) in seed funding to tackle mental healthcare staff shortages. The financing round was led by Frontline Ventures, with participation from Calm/Storm Ventures and other notable industry figures, including Anne Heraty, ex-CEO of CPL Resources, and Mahiben Maruthappu, CEO of Cera. Nolea Health’s platform matches mental healthcare clinicians with vacant jobs across different healthcare organizations, reducing the time taken to hire staff by up to 90% and the sourcing costs by up to 85%. Addressing the mental health crisis with
BK-XL, a new Brooklyn-based early-stage startup accelerator for Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) founders, has announced its inaugural cohort of 12 startups. With each startup receiving up to $500,000 each, BK-XL’s capital is on par with other big-name accelerators like Y Combinator, and, by relative investment size, is the largest BIPOC-focused accelerator in the US. Clara Wu Tsai, a Brooklyn Nets owner and Vice Chair of BSE Global, created the accelerator in partnership with Visible Hands, a VC firm for underrepresented founders. “We created BK-XL to identify and
Wisdom is an audio-first social discovery app fostering deeper connections and lasting friendships between like-minded users. Founded by British computer science graduate Dayo Akinrinade, Wisdom leverages advanced AI with the power of social audio to make the world a little wiser. “Wisdom offers women a safe space to converse about topics that matter to them, such as women’s rights, domestic violence, leadership, and wellness,” Akinrinade told Apple. “Our users who don’t identify as women consider themselves allies, and provide support by participating in the conversations or simply listening.” On Wisdom, users
