In June, Solo Ceesay, a 27-year-old first-generation immigrant, spearheaded a $26 million raise for Calaxy, an open social marketplace he co-founded with NBA star Spencer Dinwiddie. At the time, only 8% of VC funding had gone to Black startups. In this thought piece, Ceesay breaks down why funding for Black founders continues to fall short, despite efforts to turn things around. In Q3 2022, Black entrepreneurs raised $187 million in venture funding, equating to merely 0.12% of the $150.9 billion that venture capitalists deployed in totality. This figure is severely
Venture capital (VC) investment in African startups has seen a 33% increase compared to this time last year, according to gathered by The Big Deal. This follows similar reports of funding for African startups hitting new records in the first half of 2022. So far this year, more than 800 investors have contributed to at least one $100K+ startup deals on the continent. Investors have also been far more active than in previous years. For example, 250 firms made at least two investments (45% more than in 2021), and 60 partook
VC firm, Kapor Capital, announced that it officially raised $125 million in a pre-seed funding round. The new fund, the platform’s largest to date, has been backed by partners including Cambridge Associates, Align Impact, Ford Foundation, Bank of America, PayPal, and Twilio. The new funding, which has been ongoing since last year, was raised by the company’s managing partners, Uriridiakoghene “Ulili” Onovakpuri and Brian Dixon, as part of Kapor Capital’s new leadership. The Oakland-based venture capital firm founded in 2011 by Mitch Kapor and Freada Kapor has actively worked to bridge
In response to a Black entrepreneur who said VCs are racist, venture capitalist and entrepreneur Joe Lonsdale attributed disparities in venture capital investing to “average black culture” and urged the Black community to step up their game. Funding to Black entrepreneurs in the U.S. hit nearly $1.8 billion through the first half of 2021 — a more than fourfold increase compared to the same time frame last year. Led by funding to early-stage startups, 2021’s half-year total has already surpassed the $1 billion invested in Black founders in all of 2020 and the
Shelly Bell has lived many lives. She’s a computer scientist, a former high school teacher, a performance poet, a community organizer, a founder, and a CEO. She has two successful apparel printing businesses: MsPrint USA—through which she creates swag for clients like Amazon and Google with a team of women designers and printers—and Made By A Black Woman, which celebrates products made by Black women. Every project Bell undertakes is designed to empower women, especially women of color, which is why two years ago, she began her latest enterprise, Black
