Melissa Pegus has been chosen as the Managing Director for Techstars Atlanta Powered by J.P. Morgan, the latest accelerator to open up in the city. The new program, backed by an $80 million investment by J.P. Morgan, will support diverse entrepreneurs across the country. While the program is open to founders of all backgrounds, it is designed to provide equitable access to funding and support for Black, Hispanic and Latino, Indigenous American, and Pacific Islander entrepreneurs. In the first half of 2021, Black entrepreneurs received just 1.2 percent of U.S. venture capital funding. Additional data show
If you’re a fan of the Emmy award-winning series Pose, you will already know Angelica Ross as the feisty trans character, ‘Candy Ferocity’. But outside of Hollywood and in 2014, Angelica founded TransTech Social Enterprises; an organization that works to provide education, support, and jobs to trans people facing discrimination in the tech sector. In 2017, she then hosted the TransTech Summit, which is a free event for attendees to be educated on ways to level up in their careers and the industry. Two years ago Angelica told cnet.com, “technology saved my
Y Combinator’s latest batch — W22 — features 414 startups from 42 countries, representing more than 80 sectors. America reportedly has the most representation while India comes in second with 32 startups and Nigeria sits in third, having delivered 18 startups. This is the first time an African country is appearing in the top three. The W22 batch of the Y Combinator programme, which played a role in the early days of companies like Airbnb, Coinbase and Dropbox among others, is currently taking place, and concludes with a demo day end of
alGROWithm, a Nigeria-based growth agency is building Africa’s first growth talent accelerator. While most digital schools and programmes like Decagon, and AltSchool focus on solving the engineering and product talent gaps, growth is largely unattended to but alGROWithm’s GTAP aims to bridge that gap. The Growth Talent Accelerator Programme (GTAP) is a two-phase training programme in partnership with Digital Africa’s Talent 4 Startups Initiative which will help develop world-class growth engineers on the continent. Founded by Bili Sule in 2018, the agency uses growth engineering to design and implement sustainable growth models and strategies for African startups
A Black army vet has started a new capital fund for veterans and businesses in underserved communities. The intiative was started by Alicia Hanf nine years after she left the military in 2012. She founded the Dear Mama Fund to raise $1 billion in capital for investments in Black, brown, female and veteran-led companies. Alicia returned to civilian life to lead the way for veterans to become startup founders, so alongside Dear Mama Fund she also launched the LA chapter of Bunker Labs, helping scale the organization from 10-35 locations in
Startup founders often turn to friends and family for their first bit of funding but for many Black founders, that’s not an option. The “friends and family” round is when people who personally know the founders of a company pitch in money, either as a loan or in exchange for a small ownership stake but for those who may not have many family members or members with little capital – they can’t even ask them. According to the Federal Reserve, the median net worth of Black households in the US is $24,100,
A Greensboro attorney and entrepreneur is bringing racial diversity to children’s entertainment by creating a range of books using AR. Kya Johnson launched online entertainment platform RainbowMe in December 2014 with co-founders Talib Graves-Manns, who is a marketing entrepreneur, and Bernard Bell, an Atlanta-based television veteran. Back in 2014- RainbowMe was one of three organizations to receive free workspace and $40,000 in seed funding from CODE2040’s Entrepreneurs-in-Residence pilot program. CODE2040, a San Francisco nonprofit that supports the inclusion of underrepresented minorities in the tech industry, partnered with Google on the initiative that’s backing African-American and
Kadeem Woodson opened Enkel’s Barbershop last year to provide more comfort for queer customers. Although barbershops have long been regarded as a sanctuary for Black men – not all of them are a safe space for queer Black men. A study by Smith College found that some Black, queer patrons who viewed themselves as “clockable” or easily detected as a homosexual would change their physical appearance and visit shops during off-peak hours to avoid uncomfortable situations. But Woodson says he wants members of his community to remain authentically themselves and feel comfortable
The Cincinnati-based Lightship Foundation, which is well known for serving remarkable entrepreneurs and ecosystems, is moving one of the nation’s premier conferences for founders of color and Black tech professionals to the Queen City this summer. It marks a high-profile win for both the organization and the city. “Black Tech Week is a culturally historic event that innovators of color have converged upon for the last seven years to expand their minds, their networks, and their access to capital,” says Candice Matthews Brackeen, Lightship Foundation Founder, and CEO. “I am thrilled
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
