Digital investment platform, Stackwell Capital, has raised $3.5 million. The funding round was led by Michael Gordan, president of Fenway Sports Group, Jeremy Sclar, and The Kraft Group. Venture capital firm Shea Ventures, SSC Venture Partners, Shorehaven Wealth Partners, and Theo Epstein, a consultant to Major League Baseball, also participated in the funding round. Stackwell Capital, founded in 2021 by Trevor Rozier-Byrd, is a digital investment platform created to eliminate the racial wealth gap by empowering a new community of Black investors. In addition, the platform works to provide Black
Black Business Month has officially arrived. To kickstart this month, online marketplace, FLOURYSH, has announced its partnership with e-commerce platform, Shopify, to help elevate 1 million Black-owned businesses, providing them with the necessary tools needed to scale and grow. The FLOURYSH x Shopify partnerships aim to address the lack of access to information, a common setback for aspiring entrepreneurs. According to the press release, Black business owners receive a 120-day free trial on the e-commerce platform. “The partnership came to be because of our continued commitment to providing resources and
Black-owned digital marketplace, Clutch, has raised $1.2 million in a pre-seed investment fund. The funding round which Precursor Ventures led also included Capital Factory and HearstLab. Clutch, co-founded in 2020 by Madison Long and Simone May, is a digital marketplace for emerging brands and creators. According to the outlet, Long and May built the platform to provide a space where creators can launch, market, and grow their side hustles. Clutch works to create a world where authentic, engaging work supports a more sustainable, equitable lifestyle. As a people-first platform, creators
California-based VC firm, L’Attitude, has launched its new fund to support early-stage Latino founders. The investment firm raised $100 million from big-name investors, including Bank of America, Trujillo Group, Barclays, Cisco, Royal Bank of Canada, and a “strategic anchor investment” from JPMorgan Chase. According to the outlet, Latino business owners have grown 34% over the last decade. Yet, despite this, 72% of Latino entrepreneurs face funding shortfalls, with a large majority relying on personal savings, and only 1.8% are venture-backed. L’Attitude, founded in 2019 by Kennie Blanco and Sol Trujillo,
The Black Girl Magic Digital summit, which has returned for its fourth consecutive year of programming, will allow small-business female-owned entrepreneurs to qualify for a prize pool of $100,000 in grants. The summit, produced by Boss Women Media production, aims to educate, empower, and equip Black women. The summit’s goal will be to celebrate and support thousands of global attendees, including a network of corporate professionals, entrepreneurs, and student changemakers. “We are on a mission to provide Black women with the tools and education they need to take the next
POC-led embedded integration platform, Paragon, has raised $13 million in a Series A funding round led by Inspired Capital Partners. The funding round also included investors FundersClub and Garuda Ventures. Paragon, founded in 2019 by Ishmael Samuel and Brandon Foo, provides customers with a seamless, self-service experience that fits within the users’ existing workflow. The program, which is still relatively new in the market, has helped several companies integrate with different SaaS apps in a matter of minutes. The platform’s vision is to build a connecting layer for all software
Black-owned VC firm, Cornerstone has launched its first-ever investment fund to help support entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds. The £20 million ($23.9 million) fund aims to give early-stage tech companies between £250,000 and £1 million, based in the UK and across 40 countries. Cornerstone VC wants to help change the situation, to make the investment world a lot more diverse by backing unrepresented and undervalued founders and innovators. “We believe diversity is key to driving outperformance. Contrary to perceptions around a pipeline problem, that there aren’t enough diverse entrepreneurs to invest
Here is our latest roundup of tech headlines from across the African continent. Black-owned digital insurance platform, Lami Technologies, has raised $3.7 million in a seed extension funding round. The funding round, which Harlem Capital Partners led, will help the API platform begin its path to building and distributing an end-to-end digital insurance platform. The additional funding brings Lami Technologies’ overall funding amount to $5.6 million. Lami Technologies, founded in 2018 by Jihan Abbas, is an end-to-end digital insurance and API platform enabling companies across sectors to offer insurance products.
Tech giant, Apple, has launched its inaugural Entrepreneur Camp for Hispanic/Latinx founders and developers. This year’s program will specifically focus on supporting Latinx founders and will encourage leaders and developers from nine app companies in the US, Brazil, Guatemala, and Portugal to build the next generation of apps. “We are so excited to bolster the impact of Entrepreneur Camp with the addition of this new cohort for Latin technologists,” said Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives. “It’s an honor to support these founders and
The Judee von Seldenec (JVS) Philadelphia Fund for Women has invested $500,000 in Black-owned hair product line, Naturaz. The investment fund, which marks JvS’ commitment to investing $2 million in women entrepreneurs, will financially support nine technology-based ventures based in Philadelphia. The extra funding aims to help close the funding gap, disproportionally impacting Black and Hispanic women founders. Naturaz, founded in 2017 by Mumbi Dunjwa, is a hair product line based in Philadelphia that manufactures and sells vegan hair products for curly hair. Dunjwa uses her experience in chemistry, health,
