Two-year-old startup uLesson has just announced that it closed a $15 million Series B round. The startup first launched by providing a product pack of SD cards and dongles with pre-recorded videos for K-12 students. They can either access lessons via streaming or use the SD cards to download and store the content. But uLesson has introduced new features for an all-encompassing edtech play for this demographic. It added quizzes and a homework help feature to connect students with tutors from universities. It also launched a one-to-many live class feature with polls and leaderboards
Europe is “solidifying its place as a global tech power”, according to Atomico’s annual State of European Tech 2021 report. However, research still shows women and minorities are not being given enough investment. European tech is projected to cross the $100B milestones of capital invested in a single year, close to 3 times the level in 2020, reported Dealroom. The total number of tech companies that have scaled to $1B+ in Europe has jumped from 223 last year to 321. Large rounds ($250M+) are now the norm in Europe —
Mayor Of London Sadiq Khan has launched an initiative aimed at tackling the underrepresentation of young Black men in London’s thriving technology sector. The initiative, called the Tech WIN Design Lab 3 is part of Khan’s wider Workforce Integration Network (WIN) program aimed at increasing the number of young Black men in the capital’s key industries. Mr. Khan believes it’s “not right that talented and ambitious black Londoners are not being given the opportunity to prosper in the capital’s tech sector” Statistics already show young Black men make up just five
Netflix said it has fulfilled its pledge to the Black community by moving two percent of its cash holdings – around $100m – into Black-led banks and financial institutions in the US. The funding has been shared between six institutions, including $10m deposited with Hope Credit Union in the form of a transformational deposit to fuel economic opportunity in underserved communities in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. The move comes after it announced back in June 2020, amid racial-equality protests across America, that it would invest capital in Black banks to
Amazon has partnered with Pharrell Williams’ education equity nonprofit YELLOW and the Georgia Institute of Technology to launch the 2022 “Your Voice is Power” music remix competition. Now in its second year, the “Your Voice is Power” educational collaboration underscores the partners’ continued commitment to encourage K-12 students to share their perspectives on equity while learning to code new music remixes. Students will use EarSketch, Georgia Tech’s learn-to-code-through-music platform, to remix beats and create their own magic. The song selection features Pharrell’s “Entrepreneur,” Alicia Keys’ “Underdog” and Khalid’s “New Normal.” To further prepare the young competitors, the initiative
Virtual trucking carrier CloudTrucks has secured a $115 million Series B funding round on a reported $850 million valuation, according to Forbes. The firm, which provides a tech platform that helps small trucking businesses manage their administrative duties, including scheduling, instant payments, expense tracking, was founded by Tobenna Arodiogbu, Jin Shieh, and George Ezenna back in 2019. Tiger Global led its Series B round with Menlo Ventures, Flexport, Michael Ovitz, and Opendoor CEO Eric Wu. The round also includes follow-on investments from Caffeinated Capital, Craft Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Abstract, BTV, and Kindred Ventures. This Series B comes
The Parent Company — a publicly traded U.S. cannabis organization backed by Jay-Z — has named Tiffany Mcbride the managing director of its social equity ventures. She will oversee The Parent Company’s Social Equity Ventures program and help identify more minority entrepreneurs working in the cannabis sector to offer them capital and mentorship. “This is an exciting time to join The Parent Company as the Managing Director of Social Equity Ventures to continue to ensure that minority communities have a seat at the table in the cannabis industry,” McBride said in a press
Greenwood, a mobile banking platform described as doing it for the culture, seeks to support the Black and brown community in their endeavors to generational wealth. Co-founded by former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, rapper-activist Michael “Killer Mike” Render, and Bounce TV founder Ryan Glover, Greenwood is not a bank itself; instead, it features banking services provided by Coastal Community Bank and will eventually provide financial management services. It reinvests in Black and Latino communities through monthly grants and recently launched a podcast group that specializes in financial literacy and investment
SaLisa Berrien, who recently received a $100,000 Black Founders Fund award from Google for Startups, is expanding COI Energy, a Tampa-based company, across the United States. Recognized by Jason A. Scott last year as one of 30 U.S. black founders to watch in 2021, Berrien was one of 50 companies to receive a $100,000 Black Founders Fund award from Google for Startups. She participated in Google Startups for Women, which she completed last December, and has raised $2 million-plus in funds. Now her goal is to make her firm a global company. With just
Young people are the future, and one woman, 23-year-old Dazayah Walker, is the epitome of not letting age hold you back. Walker is one of the youngest female venture capitalists, thanks to the impressive investment portfolio she manages and maintains for one of Atlanta’s most prominent entertainment labels, Quality Control. What is Quality Control? Quality Control Music is an American hip hop record label founded by Kevin “Coach K” Lee and Pierre “P” Thomas in March 2013. it’s responsible for groundbreaking acts that include Migos, Lil Baby, City Girls, Lil Yachty, and a
