Black-owned serverless startup, Baselime, has raised $1.5M in pre-seed funding. The funding round, which Sequoia Capital led, also included venture capital firms Antler, Forward Partners, and Octopus Ventures. The London-based company, founded in 2021 by Boris Tane, works to reduce the challenges developers often experience. Businesses can embrace automated observability ecosystems through their platform, which is highly beneficial for remote teams. The platform also claims to offer highly flexible technology at a reduced cost by encouraging developers to run applications and manage servers on behalf of customers without needing to
“I got my job through Twitter 🎉” I never thought that I’d be the one saying those words. I’ve always seen posts of people from tech Twitter who have shared that they got a job on Twitter or that online presence helped them secure a job. Little did I know that I would be a witness to this too. Welcome to all, and thank you for taking your time to read about my journey of how I got into tech, the challenges I’ve faced, the resources I’ve used, how I
Black-owned tech platform, ColorStack, has announced the launch of its second annual Stacked Up Summit. The summit aims to equip Black and Latinx computer science students with the tools they need to pursue a career in tech successfully. The annual summit, which will take place from August 17th to August 19th this year, will feature a range of talks, panels, and networking events with professionals and recruiters from big tech companies like Netflix, Meta, and LinkedIn. In addition, the event, which caters explicitly to Black and Latinx computer science students, will include
Tech giant, Meta, has seen an unexpected increase in diverse hires since expanding its remote working options. Facebook, also known as Meta, is one of many companies that have introduced new remote working options for its employees following the pandemic. As a result, between 2021 and 2022, the tech company reported a slight increase in the share of Black, Hispanic, and Asian employees joining its US workforce, while the proportion of white workers dropped by 1.5%. According to Facebook’s Chief Diversity Officer, Maxine Williams, employees from underrepresented backgrounds and people
Non-profit tech platform, CodeHouse, has received a $1 million grant from Google.org to commence its second year of the CodeHouse Scholars Initiative (CHSI). The program provides opportunities for Black and Latinx students aspiring to enter the STEM industry. It is committed to building a diverse tech workforce in the US and offers four years of mentorship to underrepresented students attending HBCUs to help them kickstart a career in STEM. CodeHouse, co-founded in 2019 by Morehouse alumni Ernest Holmes, Jaycee Holmes, and Tavis Thompson, focuses on tackling the diversity gap in the tech industry. Their initiative program provides mentorship
Africa’s tech ecosystem has experienced tremendous growth in recent years, with 2021 seeing a record number of investments. The year 2021 was a great one for startups globally and Africa in particular. The continent saw total venture funding exceed two and a half times what it was in 2020. This figure amounted to an impressive $4.77 billion. As far as distribution is concerned, 30 African nations raised at least $100,000 in funding across the year. The ‘Big Four’ countries, Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt, and Kenya, received 81% of the investments. Five of the eight
Black-owned investment firm Fearless Fund partnered with Louisiana-based foundation ProSeed to renovate and rebuild schools in Ivory Coast, West Africa. The partnership aims to transform the educational system in West Africa, giving students the tools needed to succeed in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Fearless Fund, co-founded in 2018 by serial entrepreneur and angel investor Arian Simone, and American actress Keshia Knight Pulliam, works to invest in women of color-led businesses seeking pre-seed and seed level investment funding. The VC firm, built by women of color for women of
Kinly has announced a new partnership with data aggregation platform MX, a financial data aggregation tool, to help the company build and enhance its custom-built financial tools. The Atlanta-based financial tech company, Kinly, is dedicated to helping Black Americans build generational wealth. The platform offers members a range of benefits, including a Visa debit card and early wage access. In addition, it gives members access to financial education to help them improve their economic outcomes. The partnership with MX will see the platform introduce a range of embeddable user interfaces
On 13 July, coding school Holberton announced that it had agreed to be acquired by the African Leadership Group (ALG). It comes more than a year after Holberton managed to raise $20 million in a Series B funding round led by Redpoint Ventures. Daphni, Imaginable Futures, Pearson Ventures, Reach Capital, and Trinity Ventures also participated in the round, which brings Holberton’s total funding to $33 million. The original promise of Holberton was that it provided students — which it selects through a blind admissions process — with a well-rounded software development education akin to a college education for free.
Does Y Combinator invest in Black-owned companies? A question asked back in 2011 by online user prime0196. A time when diversity in tech was awful. It was also the year CNN published a long piece on how Silicon Valley was fighting to keep its diversity data secret. CNNMoney had filed a Freedom of Information request in August seeking EEO-1 data from 20 companies: The tech industry’s 10 biggest firms by annual sales and 10 smaller but influential firms, including Facebook and Twitter. The EEOC denied the request in full, saying
