VC firm, Kapor Capital, announced that it officially raised $125 million in a pre-seed funding round. The new fund, the platform’s largest to date, has been backed by partners including Cambridge Associates, Align Impact, Ford Foundation, Bank of America, PayPal, and Twilio. The new funding, which has been ongoing since last year, was raised by the company’s managing partners, Uriridiakoghene “Ulili” Onovakpuri and Brian Dixon, as part of Kapor Capital’s new leadership. The Oakland-based venture capital firm founded in 2011 by Mitch Kapor and Freada Kapor has actively worked to bridge
Yesterday, JusticeText announced they had closed a $2.2 million seed funding round. The funding round led by Bloomberg Beta, True Ventures, and Reid Hoffman included investors John Legend and Michael Tubbs. JusticeText, co-founded by Devshi Mehrotra and Leslie Jones-Dove in 2019, is a software platform that aims to help build more transparency around criminal proceedings. The idea to develop JusticeText stemmed from a class project both Jones-Dove and Mehrotra worked on during their time at university. After witnessing the death of Trayvon Martin, both founders felt their system would be a more proactive solution to solving
Clark Atlanta University has received nearly $10 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to help more underrepresented people get data science credentials. The extra funding, which aims to help diversify the data science sector, is the first time any HBCU has received nearly $10 million from an NSF initiative. NSF’s donation marks a new era for HBCUs and equally marks their commitment to providing more Black people with the chance to succeed. A recent NSF report has revealed only 5.56% of computer/information scientists in 2019 were Black or African American. Additionally,
Founded in 2017 by Hilda Moraa, Pezesha is a Kenyan digital lending infrastructure that allows both traditional and non-traditional financial institutions to offer working capital to micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). Now, the startup has secured an $11 million pre-Series A equity-debt round led by Women’s World Banking Capital Partners II with participation from Verdant Frontiers Fintech Fund, cFund and Cardano blockchain builder Input Output Global (IOG). The round also included a $5 million debt from Talanton and Verdant Capital Specialist Funds. Access to finance remains a key growth constraint
US-based fintech startup Deposits raised $5M in seed funding to develop its platform. The funding round led by ATX Venture Partners also included Cabal Fund, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and others. The Dallas-based finance startup, co-founded by Joseph Akintolatyo and Daniel Paramo, is a cloud-based fintech platform that helps credit unions, community banks, insurers, retailers, and brands seamlessly implement digital banking tools onto their platforms. The program also allows companies to put together a package of financial features, including mobile apps, debit and credit accounts, virtual cards, peer-to-peer payments, and lending. Akintolatyo and Paramo launched Deposits
Black-owned blockchain platform, Lumachain, has raised $28.3 million in a Series A funding round. The funding round, which VC Bessemer Venture Partners led, will help the organization revolutionize how beef, chicken, and pork products are produced globally. Perseverance, hard work, and ambition Lumachain is a testament to the perseverance, hard work, and ambition of its founder, Jamila Gordon. Gordan, who was selected as one of the world’s most inspiring and influential women in 2021, has won significant accolades for her work in the industry. Not only was Gordons selected as
Nigeria-based fintech startup, Anchor has received over $1M in investment to help expand its workforce and services. The startup fund program is backed by fund program, Y Combinator, and other venture capital firms, including Byld Ventures, Luno Expeditions, Niche Capital, Mountain Peak Capital, and angel investors such as the founder of SeamlessHR, Emmanuel Okeleji. Co-founded in 2021 by Segun Adeyemi, Olamide Sobowale, and Gbekeloluwa Olufotebi, the banking-as-a-service platform, allows consumers to embed accounts, cards, payments, lending, and other financial features to their products within minutes. “We’re now seeing a new development where businesses want to
Black-owned startup, thirdweb, has raised $24 million in investment funding. The funding round led by Haun Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Shopify, and Polygon, also included Shrug VC, Joseph Lacob, and others. The ground-breaking tech startup founded by Steven Bartlett and Furqan Rydhan aims to provide developers with a Web3 development kit to help reduce the time and cost of building and launching applications. The developer tool assists programmers in building NFTs, marketplaces, DAOs, and more. “Web3 is the most important technological shift I’ve witnessed in my lifetime,” said Steven Bartlett, co-founder
Nigerian B2B e-commerce platform Omnibiz has secured $15 million in pre-series A funding. The funding round, led by Timon Capital, included Ventures Platform, Lofty Inc, Chapel Hill Denham, Chandaria, and Musha Ventures. Omnibiz, founded by Deepankar Rustagi, is a distribution platform that works to create a more revolutionized approach to distribution. The platform aims to completely change how the retail ecosystem in developing markets operates by eliminating the disorganization of traditional trading and digitizing the retail chain. “We believe the smart informal retailer – not shopping malls – is the
Black-owned venture capital firm Brown Venture Group announced that it had received a $1.5 million investment from the Bush Foundation. Brown Venture Group, co-founded in 2018 by Dr. Paul Campbell and Dr. Chris Brooks, is an investment firm committed to investing in BIPOC tech startups and founders. The firm aims to help all startups in its portfolio grow as a brand through investment capital, training, and professional networks. By focusing on excelling in tech entrepreneurship, Brown Venture Group hopes its investments will help bypass many of the racial biases that
