Wells Fargo employees conducted “fake interviews” with diverse job candidates, The NY Times reports, with one former executive claiming he was fired after complaining about the practice, which Wells denied. Seven current and former employees, including one former executive, told The Times that they were instructed to interview women and people of color for roles that had already been filled. These efforts, they said, appeared to be a way to show a record of diversity efforts rather than actually hire diverse candidates. The current Wells Fargo employees also told The Times
Back in April 2021, João Gualberto, the district mayor of Mata de São João, held an in-person auction letting Brazilian technology companies bid for a contract to supply facial recognition technology for the public school system. The $162,000 tender was won by PontoiD, and in July that year, two public schools — João Pereira Vasconcelos and Celia Goulart de Freitas — began secretly rolling out the facial recognition system, without informing parents or students in advance, according to research by Rest Of World. Students were registered on the system, which
StockX has appointed Damien Hooper-Campbell as its first-ever chief impact officer and this is the first time the streetwear resale marketplace has brought diversity and inclusion strategy to the C-suite. The newly created role comes as the streetwear resale marketplace expands its diversity, inclusion, and social impact efforts. A significant component of his work will reportedly include managing how the company thinks about sourcing and hiring and how StockX approaches community partnerships and investments. Hooper-Campbell has over 20 years of experience leading culture, community, and social impact, primarily at companies
Zaire Allen founded Love Circular, a digital academy for aspiring user experience and user interface designers, who build the visual and interactive components for apps and websites. The 25-year-old launched it in July 2020, two months after he was let go as a UX designer at a mortgage company during the pandemic. During the covid-19 pandemic, hundreds of thousands of people were either furloughed or fired – leaving some in limbo on how to make ends meet. But coronavirus, albeit an awful two years, was a life-changing period for some who
Insurtech Etap is now on a mission to expand its services across the West African country following a $1.5 million pre-seed funding round led by Mobility 54; the venture capital arm of Toyota Tsusho and CFAO Group. Founder and CEO Ibraheem Babalola started building Etap last year when he found himself frustrated by the complexities and delays involved in purchasing insurance. “The idea itself is from being a frustrated customer; my insurance would expire and I wouldn’t get a notification to renew it…I always had to make a call to a guy
I’m sure you’ve used or heard of Calendly.com and if you haven’t, get ready to meet its founder Tope Awotona. Born in Lagos, Nigeria, into a middle-class family, Awotona’s father was a microbiologist and entrepreneur while his mother worked at the central bank. At 12, Awotona witnessed his father get shot and killed in a carjacking. This is something he has previously spoken about in length to Inc Magazine. By age 15, he had moved with his family to Atlanta, studying computer science at the University of Georgia before going into business
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.
ChainIDE, a firm helping develop company MVPs, and Conflux, a software delivery service for engineers, have teamed up to launch ‘The Hydra Developer Bootcamp’ for Web3 developers in Africa. The bootcamp aims to provide cohort members with hands-on blockchain 101 training, insight into the African blockchain, crypto industry, and a unique outlook on the future prospects of the Metaverse and Web 3. More than 200 people have reportedly already signed up for the event, according to TechCabal, while the first two modules have already attracted more than 500 views in
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
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
