Invesco QQQ’s startup pitch competition is back; this time, it’s even bigger than before. The competition has returned for its second year in partnership with MaC Venture Capital and Concrete Rose Capital. Invesco’s QQQ Legacy Startup Pitch Competition Invesco QQQ, an exchange-traded investment firm based near Chicago, first launched the Legacy Classic startup pitch competition last year. Initially, the competition was only open to Black founders from HBCUs. However, according to AfroTech, the 2023 competition is open to all Black-founded seed-stage companies with less than $3 million. Since the news was announced,
In June, Solo Ceesay, a 27-year-old first-generation immigrant, spearheaded a $26 million raise for Calaxy, an open social marketplace he co-founded with NBA star Spencer Dinwiddie. At the time, only 8% of VC funding had gone to Black startups. In this thought piece, Ceesay breaks down why funding for Black founders continues to fall short, despite efforts to turn things around. In Q3 2022, Black entrepreneurs raised $187 million in venture funding, equating to merely 0.12% of the $150.9 billion that venture capitalists deployed in totality. This figure is severely
Founder and CEO of Resilia, Severtri Wilson, is the definition of #BlackGirlMagic. Nearly two years after raising $8 million in a Series A funding round, Wilson has made history again for making the largest raise ever for a Black female-founded tech company, according to AfroTech. Who is Severtri Wilson? Severtri Wilson is the founder of the SaaS platform, Resilia. The entrepreneur has been described as “different from your average tech company founder” as a Black woman with no coding experience and no co-founder. A year after earning her master’s degree from
The latest figures from Crunchbase have revealed that Black founders raised just $187 million in the third quarter of this year, considerably less than the $350 million WeWork’s Adam Neumann raised for his latest venture. TechCrunch reports that this quarter’s figures mark a significant and continued decline in capital for Black-owned businesses. In total, Black founders have raised just over $2 billion in venture capital funding this year – although this may seem like a lot – it’s a massive decrease from the record-breaking $4.72 billion raised in 2021. Lack of
EvenScore, co-founded by Johnnie Turnage and Averett Barksdale, is on a mission to revolutionize voters’ experience by making a system that creates an “even score” when it comes to fundraising for political or non-profit candidates. What is EvenScore? EvenScore’s app aims to “bring more transparency to donations.” Voters can rank campaigns and keep across the different movements they have contributed to. EvenScore also makes it easier for political candidates to share their campaigns online. Voters on the app will also be able to see donor profiles, a photo of the candidate, and more
Venture capital (VC) investment in African startups has seen a 33% increase compared to this time last year, according to gathered by The Big Deal. This follows similar reports of funding for African startups hitting new records in the first half of 2022. So far this year, more than 800 investors have contributed to at least one $100K+ startup deals on the continent. Investors have also been far more active than in previous years. For example, 250 firms made at least two investments (45% more than in 2021), and 60 partook
Serena Williams is making big moves in the venture capital world. After announcing earlier this year, that she would be stepping away from tennis, Williams has embodied the phrase ‘put your money where your mouth is, by investing over $100 million in early-stage startups. Ugandan-based fintech, Numida, is the latest business to benefit from investment from Serena Ventures. The fintech recently raised $12.3M in a pre-series A funding round led by Serena Ventures. Participation included the Pan-African VC fund, Launch Africa, Breega, Soma Capital, Y Combinator, and MFS Africa. What is
The Lip Bar Inc., the holding company for the beauty brands The Lip Bar and Thread Beauty, has closed a new funding round. The $6.7 million round, led by Pendulum, will focus on expanding The Lip Bar and Thread Beauty’s distribution as well as incubating a third beauty brand. Endeavor and The Fearless Fund also contributed to the fund. Melissa Butler, the business’ founder and Chief Executive Officer, said the round came after years of consistent growth unencumbered by the pandemic. “Our lip sales were crazy during the pandemic—we sold
Byld Ventures, a $15 million fund launched this May, has eyes for startups mainly across Egypt and Nigeria due to the partners’ experiences in those markets. Byld Ventures reached its first close almost in June and a second close at $10 million last month. It expects to achieve its final close by year’s end, according to TechCrunch. Over a dozen athletes have backed the fund as well as the Dubai government and several unnamed institutional LPs. The early-stage fund — which has made four investments: Ceviant, Apata, Thepeer and Anchor — consists of four
Drake-backed betting platform, Players’ Lounge has raised $10.5 million in a Series A funding round, according to AfroTech. The funding round led by Griffin Gaming Partners included Comcast Ventures, Samsung Next, Vice Ventures, WndrCo, Sharp Alpha Partners, True Capital, Myles Garrett, Josh Norman, and Breanna Stewart. The organization, founded by Austin Woolridge, allows gamers to place bets on matches they are playing against others. In solo, head-to-head competitions, tournament formats, and ongoing competitions, friends can win real money through the Players’ Lounge. For “all kinds of gamers” In an interview
