Early-stage investor Black Seed has raised £5 million ($6.25 million) with aims to create a Black Silicon Valley in London. The South London-based venture firm raised the money as an inaugural fund to invest in and support Black founders by investing in seed-stage startups. Founders Karl Lokko, Cyril Lutterodt, and founding member Yvonne Nagawa launched Black Seed to address the lack of funding Black founders receive in the UK. According to Techcrunch, the firm will focus on early-stage investing, serving as a kind of “family and friends” round for those
According to a new survey from Shopify, Black businesses contribute significantly to the company, yet they still struggle to get funding. The barriers Black-owned businesses face Black-owned businesses face many barriers that limit their growth, including a need for more access to capital funding and investments. Not only does this make it harder for them to succeed, but it also limits their growth potential. Despite racial and social justice movements catalyzing public support for Black businesses over recent years, minority founders have been left with unfulfilled promises of investments from banks,
Now more than ever, Black VCs deserve to be celebrated – which is why RISE InVC couldn’t have come at a better time. Hosted by Included VC, RISE InVC will take place from January 17 to 19 and will be the first-ever global gathering designed to spotlight and celebrate the work Black VCs have been doing over the years. Venture capitalists from South Africa, Singapore, Australia, France, and the UK will come for three days to meet, connect, and inspire one another. Across the days, Rise InVC will hold a
Despite making moves in the investment world, Kevin Hart has made it clear that he has not taken his eye off entertainment. After investing $500,000 in Black Sands Entertainment earlier this year, Kevin Hart’s Hartbeat Productions has announced it is working with the Black-owned comic house to adapt its “Black Sands” comic series into an animated film and television series. The move has been described as “one of the most significant moments in Black entertainment history” and will see Hartbeat provide Black Sands Entertainment with strategic advisory services as part
“Done is better than perfect” is Tanya Sam’s mantra. Real Housewives of Atlanta star Tanya Sam has said goodbye to reality TV and hello to the tech world. Since leaving reality television in 2020, Sam has worked to become a key figure in female entrepreneurship, particularly within the tech space. Prior to her transition into the tech industry, Sam was a nurse working in oncology and hematology before she first appeared on the hit Bravo series. “I was a registered nurse for 10 years,” Sam previously explained in an interview with Page
Investment banking giant, Goldman Sachs, has taken a massive step toward bridging the racial tech gap by investing $2.25 million in Black and Latinx students. By becoming a premier sponsor of the Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO) Tech Developer, the investment company will provide Black and Latinx computer majors with the skills, coaching, and experience needed to become strong candidates in the ever-evolving tech industry. “Our goal is to ensure students have the tools they need to land top tech roles upon graduation,” said Julian Johnson, Executive Vice President, SEO.
Nigeria-based fintech startup, Anchor has received over $1M in investment to help expand its workforce and services. The startup fund program is backed by fund program, Y Combinator, and other venture capital firms, including Byld Ventures, Luno Expeditions, Niche Capital, Mountain Peak Capital, and angel investors such as the founder of SeamlessHR, Emmanuel Okeleji. Co-founded in 2021 by Segun Adeyemi, Olamide Sobowale, and Gbekeloluwa Olufotebi, the banking-as-a-service platform, allows consumers to embed accounts, cards, payments, lending, and other financial features to their products within minutes. “We’re now seeing a new development where businesses want to
Black-owned startup, thirdweb, has raised $24 million in investment funding. The funding round led by Haun Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Shopify, and Polygon, also included Shrug VC, Joseph Lacob, and others. The ground-breaking tech startup founded by Steven Bartlett and Furqan Rydhan aims to provide developers with a Web3 development kit to help reduce the time and cost of building and launching applications. The developer tool assists programmers in building NFTs, marketplaces, DAOs, and more. “Web3 is the most important technological shift I’ve witnessed in my lifetime,” said Steven Bartlett, co-founder
Black-owned venture capital firm Brown Venture Group announced that it had received a $1.5 million investment from the Bush Foundation. Brown Venture Group, co-founded in 2018 by Dr. Paul Campbell and Dr. Chris Brooks, is an investment firm committed to investing in BIPOC tech startups and founders. The firm aims to help all startups in its portfolio grow as a brand through investment capital, training, and professional networks. By focusing on excelling in tech entrepreneurship, Brown Venture Group hopes its investments will help bypass many of the racial biases that
Billionaire Silicon Valley mogul, Adam Neumann, has bounced back from the spectacular failure of WeWork to become the face behind a $1 billion residential real estate company, Flow. According to Bloomberg, venture capital powerhouse Andreessen Horowitz has pledged approximately $350 million to kickstart Neumann’s newest venture. This investment will be the largest check written for single funding round, in the fund’s history, according to the New York Times – and it’s got everyone on the internet talking. Failing upwards Neumann’s new business venture comes three years after the world witnessed the meteoric
