Starting as a listserv, Visible Figures has grown into a support network for Black women in tech. The group’s name is a play off the book and movie Hidden Figures about three Black women — two mathematicians and an engineer — working at NASA in the 1960s. Visible Figures, which has $2.1B in collective capital raised, was formed in 2017 by Stephanie VanPutten, who raised $2million for her own startup. It was launched in response to a report that found only 12 Black women in the world had raised $1M+ in venture capital. In
Founder of femtech startup Ruby Love, Crystal Etienne, joined forces with her husband, Jean, last year to start VC firm CaJE, a VC that focuses on investing in “soil” rounds, similar to a family and friends investing round. Crystal’s own startup has raised $15 million since it was founded in 2016. She bootstrapped the company from its humble beginnings to over $10 million within two years. But she still felt “cajed” many times while entering the new industry with very little help along the way, but overcame every obstacle. Jean ran his
Churpy, a Kenyan fintech startup, has secured a $1 million seed round led by Unicorn Growth Capital. Also participating were Antler East Africa, Nairobi’s business angel network, and a group of Rally Cap LPs. The round will be used to support expansion to Egypt, Nigeria, and South Africa. The startup said it wants to transform how businesses manage the debt owed to them by their customers through its Software as a service (SaaS) product – which automates the labor-intensive processes of reconciling incoming payments and invoices that are still predominantly manual for most local
Back in 2020, Black Founders Matter made its first investment in a company called A Kids Book About, founded by Jelani Memory but since then it has invested in one of the most-decorated track star in US history and many others. Here’s the back story. Despite his best effort, Marceau Michel could not secure venture funding, so he decided to take matters into his own hands. What started off as a small T-shirt line that hosted the slogan, Black Founders Matter, to generate revenue for his own company has now turned into an ambitious
Jeeves — which describes itself as “an all-in-one corporate card and expense management platform for global startups” — was valued at $500 million back in September last year when it raised a $57 million Series B. This means it has quadrupled in value in just over six months as it announced last week that it has now raised $180 million in a Series C round that values the company at $2.1 billion. Jeeves only publicly launched in March of 2020, and officially emerged from stealth last June with $31 million
In 2021, venture capital invested just $115 million in digital media globally, a tenth of the $1.1billion it funded in 2015, but not much came to Africa. Digital newsrooms in Africa are reportedly said to be more likely to receive story grants than business funding, with a few exceptions like OMG Digital. Of the reported $4.3–$5 billion raised by African startups in 2021 where fintech received 53–63% of the volume, digital media companies are one of many sectors that have traditionally been overlooked in the conversation of tangible ventures. But last week Big Cabal
After struggling to connect with top technologists and designers, Ronnie Kwesi Coleman co-founded Meaningful Gigs two years ago. The inspiration drew from Coleman’s desire to specifically connect Black product designers and developers around the world with better job opportunities. Now – the company has raised $6million. The seed round was led by Stage 2 Capital with participation from Rethink Education, Authentic Ventures, Reach Capital, Marla Blow, Zvi Band, and Michele Perry. Stage 2 Capital partner, Mandy Cole told TechCrunch, “With the shortage of highly skilled talent and the increasing need for diverse
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
According to The Big Deal, less than 1% of all VC dollars went toward startups with one or more women founders last year, details investments in Africa. However, on a more positive note – depending on how you look at it, founding teams counting women and men as members raised 17% of VC investments in Africa in 2021. But the lack of investment in women-founded startups isn’t new. If we took a look back almost a decade ago – according to Briter Bridges, another publication that tracks VC investments in
Last week, Yep!, a “financial super app” with payments, remittance, and banking features, announced that it has raised $1.5 million in a pre-seed round led by pan-African VC Greenhouse Capital. The San Francisco- and Lagos-headquartered startup was started by Olaoluwa Awojoodu, who then teamed up with Airende Ojeomogha and Garry Ottosen to start Yep!. The startup plans to go live across the five markets where E-Settlement is present, serving digital financial services to consumers, small business owners, and merchants. They also have a mission to enhance financial inclusion by leveraging PayCentre Africa — the startup’s agent banking platform, to
