Njoku Emmanuel is somewhat obsessed with coding. After his father seized his laptop for reportedly “coding too much” and not focusing on his studies, he dropped out of school to focus on coding. Speaking in-depth about his experience, he said: “any time I was going to school, I was going to charge my laptop and code. I didn’t tell my parents. When they gave me money to buy textbooks, I used it to buy coding courses on Udemy.” His father somehow found out he has been missing classes and invited him
The Black News Channel, a cable news station focused on serving Black viewers, ceased operations on Friday afternoon after its billionaire backer declined to provide more funding for the startup. Now it’s currently under fire after former network employees took to social media to claim they were blindsided when operations were stopped abruptly. They also claim they have been waiting weeks for their final paychecks, just to be told they would not be receiving them as promised. Founded by former GOP congressman J.C. Watts back in 2020, the network was
Imalipay, which describes itself as a one-stop-shop financial services platform, has closed a $3 million seed in debt and equity round. The fintech raised an $800,000 pre-seed round in 2020. It was launched in late 2020 by Tatenda Furusa and Oluwasanmi Akinmusire after Furusa noticed the challenges ride-hailing drivers faced when accessing working capital or emergencies like running out of fuel in Nairobi. COO Akinmusire and Furusa met while working at Cellulant before starting ImaliPay. They received funding from Google Black Founders Fund last October before closing this seed round, which welcomed participation from Leonnis Investments.
Founded in 2018, Base10 Partners is helmed by managing partners Adeyemi Ajao and TJ Nahigian. Now it’s just been announced as the first Black-led VC firm to cross $1 Billion AUM with its new fund. This new early-stage fund follows a $137 million fund in 2018 and a $250 million Fund II in 2020. Previously – the firm invested in about 30 companies per fund with large lead checks of up to $15 million that would give it 15% to 20% stakes in a startup. The San Francisco-based firm uses a
Hive Wealth by Impart Media, a community-first mobile app that helps people grow their wealth and leave a legacy for future generations, officially announced it received $600K in funding from Black Tech Nation Ventures. Through Black Tech Nation Ventures, Hive Wealth is now able to address massive financial inequalities that millions of people of color in the USA experience. “We are thrilled to announce Black Tech Nation Ventures as our first institutional investor,” said Yvette Butler, founder of Hive Wealth. “BTN Ventures and Hive Wealth share a common mission of building generational wealth. We are excited
Morgan State University will host a tribute to the memory of its alumnus Earl G. Graves Sr, founder of Black Enterprise, the magazine launched in 1970 for Black professionals and entrepreneurs. Graves died in 2020, and due to safety restrictions during the height of the pandemic, no memorial at the university was held at the time. This celebration of his life has been in planning for over a year. Family and friends of Graves, Morgan State University president Dr. David K. Wilson, and civil rights leaders will gather at the Earl Graves
Online lending marketplace LendingTree published a new study on places with the most Black-owned businesses in the United States, based on the US Census Bureau Annual Business Survey data. Fayetteville, NC was found to have the highest percentage of Black-owned businesses in the US. Other metros in the South — including Washington, DC — join Fayetteville at the top of the list. Pittsburgh, however, ranked the lowest out of the 50 American metros listed, with a mere 1.0% of small businesses being Black-owned — a percentage that falls below the national Black
Buy now pay later (BNPL)—a short-term consumer financing that allows shoppers to purchase products online and pay in installments with nominal or no fees—is sweeping the global e-commerce sector. In Africa, BNPL is beginning to take shape with CredPal, one of the earliest pioneers of buy now, pay later in Nigeria, closing a bridge round of $15 million in equity and debt — the latter constituting a very large chunk of the financing — to expand its consumer credit offerings across Africa. The Y Combinator- and Google-backed CredPal allows individuals
Just 15 at the time of his conviction, Marcus Bullock was sentenced to a penitentiary full of men twice his age. Now he is the founder of Flikshop, a mobile app for people to upload and send digital postcards with photos and messages that make their way to their loved ones currently incarcerated. To use the Flikshop app, users pay 99 cents to send a message and upload a photo that can be sent to prisons and jails across the nation. Bullock also has a Flikshop Angels program that allows people to
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
