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The NAACP has launched a “fund of funds” to scale impact within communities of color. According to a news release, NAACP Capital was formed with the support of Kapor Capital, the Kapor Center, and nine venture fund managers. It seeks to raise $200 million to fulfill its goal of investing in fund managers connected to sectors such as education, healthcare, and finance, with a focus on supporting underserved communities. Beyond capital, the initiative aims to close racial equity gaps and increase diversity within the tech industry. As part of this mission, resources and support will be provided to fund managers and founders. “As an ever-evolving legacy organization, the NAACP knows that innovation is borne out of inclusivity. Impact investing has the power to drive historic financial returns and uplift overlooked communities,” NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson said in a statement. “Right now, deeply entrenched systemic barriers are curtailing the innovative progress necessary to...
African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM) has surpassed its funding expectation. AIIM was launched to “invest long-term institutional unlisted equity in African infrastructure projects,” its website mentions. The company’s investments extend across Eastern, Western, and Southern Africa, with $2.8 billion in assets under management. Now, AIIM will scale its work in light of reportedly raising $954 million, which comprises $748 million in commitments and $206 million in co-investments, Shoppe Black reports. Marking its fourth pan-African infrastructure fund, AIIM surpassed expectations by 50% with the backing of 29 investors from all over the world, such as pension funds, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, asset managers, and family offices, with half of the commitments coming from Development Finance Institution (DFI) investors. “Given the challenging global fundraising environment, we are delighted to have outperformed the targeted fund size. We received strong...
Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter has been a rollercoaster experience. The purchase of the social media giant came with significant changes including massive layoffs and payments for the once-coveted blue check. Not to mention, AfroTech reported that one of the significant shifts with Musk as CEO was the closing of Twitter’s Africa office. The Ghana office had only 20 employees but was closed just days after officially opening. Surprising moves like the layoffs and added restrictions have been back to back as Musk navigates his power leading the company. A recent development in the shake-up is the dissolution of its corporate development team that supported minority-owned venture capital firms. According to Forbes, Twitter could be backing out of its promise of millions to venture capital firms and small businesses.
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...
One year after the release of Emmy award-winning Netflix docuseries “When They See Us,” filmmaker and director Ava DuVernay launched her online learning platform, ARRAY, to encourage conversations around diversity and social justice. Now she’s taking her mission for inclusivity in Hollywood a step further with a joint venture alongside Warner Bros. Television chairman Peter Roth. Both DuVerynay and Roth have joined forces to announce the launch of Array Crew — a division of Array Alliance — which will act as a diverse database to highlight below-the-line talent in Hollywood, Variety reports. According to their announcement in the Los Angeles Times, the purpose behind assembling Array Crew is to offer Hollywood a solution to their diversity problem. The platform will ultimately bridge the hiring gap for women and people of color in the entertainment industry. Why do most film and TV sets look the same? The industry often tells us they’ve looked for Black folks, people of color and...
Cherryrock Capital has raised $172 million to support diverse founders. The venture capital firm, founded in 2023 by Stacy Brown-Philpot (Managing Partner) — head of Alphabet Inc.’s online sales and operations in India and board member at HP Inc., StockX, and Noom Inc. — provides Series A and B funding to underrepresented founders of software companies driving innovation, according to its website. The VC firm, backed by a team with over 60 years of operating experience, has closed its first fund at $172 million, Bloomberg reports. “Today, I’m thrilled to announce the launch of Cherryrock Capital, the first fund focused on investing at the Series A & B stages in underinvested entrepreneurs …Cherryrock Capital is about being the foundation of success for the next generation of entrepreneurs…We’re on a mission to change the face of wealth creation and build an enduring institution. We are looking for founders who have the courage to be audacious in their vision, accountable to their...
Editorial Note: Opinions and thoughts are the author’s own and not those of AFROTECH™. Significant layoffs have been a consistent theme throughout the world of work for over three years. Whether you work in tech, media, or finance you have seen the news or know of those who have been impacted. Gone is the employment heyday of the pandemic, when firms across the board ramped up their hiring efforts in 2020 and 2021. This led to people embracing new opportunities and getting bumps in compensation that were not previously available. Unfortunately, when the boosts to businesses and balance sheets went away, firms started laying off their workforces in droves. Initially, the reasons behind the cuts were due to overhiring, and companies were looking to streamline their workforces and management in order to move the organizations more nimbly. The media started to refer to it as a “White-Collar Recession” because while other sectors like hospitality and health services saw employment...
A group of HBCU students were awarded during the week of Super Bowl LIX for their innovative pitch in sports technology. Diverse Representation, a company focused on increasing the number of Black agents, attorneys, managers, and publicists across sports, hosted its inaugural HBCU Sports Business Pitch Competition in New Orleans, LA, in partnership with the talent agency William Morris Endeavor (WME) on Friday, Feb. 7, 2025, during Super Bowl LIX week. According to information shared with AFROTECH™, the competition was launched to provide local HBCU student entrepreneurs the opportunity to pitch sports-related concepts for a chance to receive funding and connect with decision-makers in the industry. “When I initially launched Diverse Representation, I’ve always been very, very clear about what our mission is: to help Black professionals in the sports and entertainment industry,” Diverse Representation Founder Jaia Thomas told AFROTECH™. “Not minorities, not people of color—Black...
Considering a sponsor to invest in your career journey this conference season? Terri Evans, a senior technical program manager with a Bachelor of Science degree from North Carolina A&T State University, was able to further her decade-long career thanks to securing a sponsor for her first AFROTECH™ Conference in November 2024. She has worked in several project management roles across companies that include Northrop Grumman, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, and Equinix. Her next steps within her career were to move into leadership, and this was an incentive to attend the conference. “I’m looking to expand to being in a space of manager of a PMO (Project Management Office) or as director of a PMO. I work primarily in the infrastructure and data center space, so there is a lot of growth in that space due to artificial intelligence (AI) and all of the cool and things that are in machine learning that are coming into the space,” she told AFROTECH™. “So because of that, there is a deep...
Midway through the pandemic , in 2022, there were a small amount ( 19% ) of American workers who were working in jobs that were exposed to artificial intelligence (AI). Meanwhile, almost one-quarter (23%) of workers had the least exposure to AI. The remaining job industries varied with AI exposure. And while there are differing opinions about whether AI is taking away jobs from American workers or helping them to skip monotonous tasks, job seekers would arguably agree that they’d love to have an AI program that automatically filled in all of those little boxes in job applications. Even with a functional resume that focuses exactly on what the job description is looking for, some companies will still require filling out traditional job applications with your job history in sequential order. And this can quickly get tedious. Autofill sorta helps but not enough to avoid job seekers having to edit the automated info afterwards. So with all the extra work involved in using automated...
Financial changes can be stressful, especially when you’re nervous about a pay cut or job loss. You know you need to do something to make yourself happier, but execution isn’t always there. You might want a career change altogether with your current employer. Or, maybe you want to start your own business and are feeling confined in your current industry . New Year’s resolutions are a common time when people reflect on both. No one wants to start the year with an employer that they don’t like or at a job where they feel unfulfilled. Could asking motivational interviewing questions be what you need to figure out your career long-term? What Are The 6 A’s Of Motivational Interviewing? Motivational interviewing questions started off with a connection in the health care industry. In the clinical trial report Do the five A’s work when physicians counsel about weight loss? from 2011, physicians would often participate in the Ask and the Advise but rarely continue on with the Assess, Assist...
The workforce is shifting in ways we’ve never seen before, and 2025 is the year to be strategic. From AI jobs changing the future to frontline roles making a major comeback, the opportunities are out there — but thriving in this market requires more than just showing up. “It’s a fresh year, and I know the pressure’s on to hit the ground running,” says Andrew McCaskill. “The job market feels tough right now. Competition is fierce. Black professionals and people of color are facing some unique challenges, from systemic racism to limited access to mentors and sponsors. Despite the challenges, opportunity is still out there, and we always persevere. The key is to work smarter, not harder.” As we explored in a recent AFROTECH™ breakdown of workforce trends, industries like AI, travel, and healthcare are booming, offering new opportunities for professionals ready to pivot or grow. LinkedIn’s Jobs on the Rise 2025 report takes it a step further by spotlighting 25 of the fastest-growing...
If the workforce were a playlist, 2025 would give “Renaissance” by Beyoncé — a vibe shift, a reset, and a clear signal that the world of work is hitting some new high notes. The game is changing, and whether it’s artificial intelligence (AI) running point, the return of curated travel experiences, or frontline roles making a comeback, one thing is clear: opportunities are out here, but they won’t fall into your lap. For Black professionals, the stakes are high. Job competition is fierce, with 2.5 applicants per role compared to 1.5 in 2022. Confidence is shaky, and hiring managers ghost candidates like they forgot the assignment. However, according to LinkedIn’s Jobs on the Rise 2025 report , nearly 60% of these roles are fresh on the scene, signaling change and opportunity. “Fields like AI, experiential industries, and frontline jobs are booming, offering fresh opportunities to break into spaces where we’ve historically been underrepresented,” says Andrew McCaskill. AI: The...
A venture capital firm founder has launched a lawsuit against PayPal, alleging that the company’s diversity and equity program excluded her because she is Asian. Nisha Desai, the founder of Andav Capital, claims she applied for consideration in a $530 million financial commitment PayPal announced in 2020 to support Black- and minority-owned businesses , TechCrunch reported. However, she asserts that she was overlooked due to her Asian heritage, as the program primarily focused on supporting Black- and Hispanic-led enterprises. “Funds majority-owned by individuals of other races, including Asian Americans, are not given equal consideration,” Desai stated in the New York lawsuit, per the outlet. “Worse, PayPal and its senior management have repeatedly trumpeted the program’s focus on race, bragging in statements and press releases that PayPal’s program is for some races and ethnicities and not others.” Desai claims that PayPal has violated Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866,...