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Nothing is more significant in this life than the love of a mother. Renowned musician will.i.am took a moment to shed light on how his mother’s sacrifices led to his success today during the AFROTECH™ 2024 Conference, Nov. 13-16. The innovative producer, visionary artist, and founding member of the Grammy Award-winning music group Black Eyed Peas opened up about his humble beginnings in a session on the main stage titled “CollaborA(I)te: Empowering Creative Connections.” “I remember my mom was like, ‘Wait, put your clothes on. You go up here to get our food stamps. Sit in this line to get this cheese.’ When you’re in the projects, and that’s your reality, standing in line to get government services, and you’re there and you’ve got dreams and you’re like one day, I want to move my mama out of these projfts, and you come outside, and your best friend that you grew up with is no longer with you because he got shot and you want to dream different — that’s where I get ambition from.”...
Fanbase is on a mission to get creators paid, and the company’s latest news is proof. According to information shared with AFROTECH™, the social media platform has officially reached its $10 million equity crowdfunding goal. It’s a historic feat as Fanbase Founder Isaac Hayes III is now reportedly the first Black man in history to raise this amount of money in a seed funding round on StartEngine in a Regulation Crowdfunding campaign. “We have a plan, and we’re going to be able to scale and build the business in real-time without having to stop and start and stop and start,” Hayes told Will Lucas on “Black Tech Green Money” podcast. “This is a scale-up opportunity because there are so many things that people want out of Fanbase, and I myself do not like to not be able to deliver on what I want to give to the community.” He added, “This raise is definitely putting us in a position to not only catch up to the current apps that are out there but surpass them because of my understanding...
Canza Finance’s co-founders are leaning into Web3 to financially empower the African continent. Pascal Ntsama IV and Oyedeji Oluwoye are looking to create “the world’s largest non-institutional-based financial system” through the creation of Canza Finance, the company website mentions. They both share distinct journeys on how they arrived to the company’s inception. For Chief Technology Officer Oluwoye — born in Nigeria, Africa, and raised in Sydney, Australia, before moving to the United States at 14 — he began taking various CompTIA Certifications, early-career data analytics certification, during his senior year of high school. After graduation, he headed to the Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University to obtain a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science. While in college, he was able to secure a position with Adtran, a networking and telecommunications company based in the U.S., as a co-op engineer. He then transitioned to work at AT&T as a senior specialist-network...
When we talk about wealth, sometimes it can feel like Black people are excluded from the conversation. Thanks to systemic and systematic discriminatory practices, countless Black Americans are often shut out of the surest path to personal wealth — property ownership. And often, when Black wealth is touted, it’s almost exclusively limited to celebrities from actors and directors like Tyler Perry to media moguls like Oprah Winfrey, and of course countless entertainers and athletes . More importantly, when the conversation turns to billionaires , the number of Black folk, whether that be male or female, shrinks even further. But Black wealth isn’t limited to people that travel in celebrity circles: there are several Black entrepreneurs that are influencing the U.S. economy that have also accumulated quite a nest egg and reputation. In particular, the story behind the richest Black man in America is an inspiring one that shows you that our community is amazing whether they’re in the...
Imagine being in an audience and waiting to hear from your favorite speakers. The house lights go dim, the spotlight cranks up and from the silence emerges the sounds from “This is Me,” the inspirational and audacious track from the 2017 film, “The Greatest Showman.” This setup is the dream of the COO and co-founder of StartupStarter, Lorel Scott. Scott has unapologetically busted into the business sector to change the narrative around business education and level the playing field for people of color seeking to advance their businesses. Proudly representing the intersectionality of being a Black gay man, Scott understands the nuances and challenges that exist for business leaders of historically underrepresented communities. This is where StartupStarter enters the chat.
Solo Ceesay is the CEO & Co-Founder of Calaxy. — Since I was a boy, I wanted to be a successful businessman. I vividly remember trying on my father’s oversized pastel suits, donning the ubiquitous business look of any dapper-dressed African man of the ’90s. Even before I could form full sentences, I was primed and driven to work in business. With motivation and determination aplenty, my actions were encouraged by relentless sideline cheering from my mother yelling, “You’re a king, Solo!” Just over a year ago, I took a bet on myself. A bet that a then-26-year-old Black kid could make something out of nothing. And while you could call this journey just about everything but easy, the reality is that raising $26 million with Calaxy was the easy part. The sacrifices I’ve made, the friends I’ve lost, the lack of idols to look up to, and making the decision to take a nose dive into a world of uncertainty are all invariably more difficult for those who look like me. From having to...
Destiny’s Child may have set the tone for a whole new wave of independence for women like Wilglory Tanjong. According to CNBC Make It, Tanjong is a full-time MBA student at the University of Pennsylvania and serves as the founder and CEO of a luxury purse brand, Anima Iris, all at the tender age of 25. Upon launching in 2020, the brand has reportedly raked in more than $725,000, catching the likes of Beyoncé herself. But, how does one manage to achieve such success at a young age? Well, first, Tajong did not start her business for financial gain but instead wanted to use it to honor her personal and ancestral background. “[Anima Iris] was a therapeutic project that was just making me happy,” Tanjong shared with CNBC Make It. “I’ve always been a very fashionable person. People always ask me, ‘Where’d you get this? Where’d you get that?’ And then I realized, ‘Hey, maybe people will just buy [products] from me.’”
Apple is remaining committed to bringing Black-led platforms to the main stage for the world to see. The tech giant recently pledged $30 million in new commitments to our communities including the masterminds behind Kickstroid, the app deemed “the smartest sneaker app ever.” Founders David Alston and Nicco Adams created the platform to serve as the ultimate tool for sneakerheads using machine learning to bring sneaker culture straight to users’ fingertips through its mobile iOS app. It is designed to be used by everyone. Whether you’re the ultimate sneakerhead or someone who is taking their first dip into sneaker culture. The easy-to-use tool helps anyone using the Kickstroid app to stay up to date with the latest sneaker news and of course the latest sneaker drops. As Apple continues to build on its original investment as a part of its Racial Equity and Justice Initiative (REJI), which supports students, innovators, and advocacy organizations that are leading the charge in creating...
Black Ops Ventures, a Black-owned VC fund, has announced that it has closed its first fund with investments totaling $13 million. And, thanks to this fund closing, the company has announced its intent to exclusively back outstanding Black tech founders in the United States and Canada. According to a press release, “In securing investments for this initial close, Black Ops relied upon long-standing relationships with some of the most respected names in the tech industry.” Some of those names include Blavity, Inc. CEO Morgan DeBaun, Drew Houston, Jacob Gibson, Ben Horowitz, Union Square Ventures and Jeff Bussgang. Bank of America and Northwestern Mutual led the fundraising round, according to the press release. “We are part of this community of Black founders, with better access to deal flow than other venture investors, regardless of their cultural background,” said James Norman , partner, in the press release. Norman is also the founder of Pilotly and co-founder of Transparent...
If you do any type of freelance or contract work, this millennial just made your life a whole lot easier! As a football star turned tech guru, Blake Stanton is the visionary behind the Quiktract app, designed to give his peers a safe space while they’re sitting among corporate tables. The enterprise venture app was created specifically with entrepreneurs in mind as it allows freelancers the opportunity to connect, create amenable contracts, and secure payments all in one place. Since 2019, the app has combined the ease of a marketplace with the lead, contract, and payment tools that entrepreneurs need to easily manage their work. It offers a layer of protection for both freelancers and service providers as they work together on various projects.
Lendtable — a Black-led fintech startup — has raised an $18 million Series A funding round led by O1 Advisors with other participants including SoftBank’s SB Opportunity Fund , Valor Equity Partners, and the CEOs of Complex Networks and Social Finance, Inc (SoFi), Socii Capital and Streamlined Ventures. Founded in 2020 by former Dropbox product managers Mitchell Jones and Sheridan Clayborne, Lendtable offers cash advances to allow employees to take full advantage of their 401(k) match all at once without needing to use any of their own money. Once their money has been vested, the San Francisco-based startup takes a portion of the profit earned. Jones and Clayborne were inspired to solve the problem of underutilized 401(k) matching by their own families’ financial struggles. “I’m obsessed with trying to help people save and invest their money. I come from a lower-middle-income Black community in Dayton, Ohio,” Jones told AfroTech. While an undergraduate at Yale Unversity, Jones...
Last week, AfroTech reported that Byron Allen was poised to acquire Tegna in a deal worth $8 billion. Now, however, a new report reveals that the CEO of Allen Media Group has successfully raised $10 billion in a bid to acquire Tegna and engage in some debt management. Reuters is reporting that the deal Byron Allen has put together is backed by 14 banks and 10 investors, including Ares Management Corp, Fortress Investment Group, Oaktree Capital Management, and Michael Milken’s family office. “Ares is leading a $2.2 billion preferred equity investment in support of Allen’s financing package, another of the sources added. Tegna could choose a winning bidder as early as this month, the sources said,” reports the outlet. Byron Allen is said to be going up against investment firms Apollo Global Management Inc. and Standard General LP, but Allen is still poised to be the favorite winner, according to the report. However, New York Post reports that prior to Byron Allen raising the money...
When John “JP” Petty was promoted to an executive level at Wieden & Kennedy, he couldn’t help but shout out his Historically Black College and University (HBCU) alma mater, Lincoln University. According to Petty, the education he got from the acclaimed HBCU was indeed second to none — but in actuality, he got so much more, too. “Without Lincoln, I wouldn’t have gotten to know myself ,” he told AfroTech. “That’s where I came to my full realization of self, as a Black man — and how it helped me find my place in this world. It was there that I realized I didn’t have to be an athlete, or a rapper, to be a success in this world. I could do it on my own terms, in my own way — so, yes, I fully recommend that anyone who can, should absolutely attend an HBCU. It was very necessary for me, and it can be very necessary for you, too.” Until now, Petty has served as head of social for W+K’s New York office, where he has been integral in building a robust social practice, as well as helping to...
Chipper Cash, an African cross-border payments company, has announced its new $2 billion valuation after its recent Series C extension. According to NairaMetrics, this new Series C extension raised an additional $150 million for the company. The funding was led by Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange platform FTX. SVB Capital, as well as other previous investors such as Deciens Capital, Ribbit Capital, Bezos Expeditions (owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos), One Way Ventures, and Tribe Capital, reinvested in this extension round. Chipper Cash, which was founded in 2018 by Ham Serunjogi and Maijid Moujaled, is a no-fee peer-to-peer cross-border payment service in Africa. Through their app, users can accept payments in Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Africa and Kenya — to name but a few places that use the app. In 2021, the company expanded again — this time, into the United Kingdom. By using Chipper Cash, users can send money from the United Kingdom to their...