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In less than five years, The Folklore has set itself on a path of consistent evolution. Launched in 2018, founder Amira Rasool created her company as an e-commerce retailer to help African fashion designers gain more economic opportunities . Now, in addition to Africa and the diaspora, The Folklore is catering to more marginalized communities and pivoted to a B2B wholesale platform that’s expanded its services. Moreover, new and existing investors have joined in for its expansion. According to a press release shared with AFROTECH™, The Folklore has raised $3.4 million in a seed funding round, bringing its total amount raised to $6.2 million. As previously shared by AFROTECH™, in 2022, the company raised $1.7 million in a pre-seed funding round — making Rasool one of the youngest Black women to raise over $1 million in a pre-seed round for a fashion and lifestyle brand. The Folklore’s seed round was led by early-stage VC firm Benchstrength, the press release discloses. Fellow...
Longtime friends LeBron James and Drake are investing their dollars in the PGA Tour. As AFROTECH previously told you, the PGA announced $1.5 billion “in immediate and future equity” from the Strategic Sports Group (SSG), which will permit 200 PGA Tour members to become “equity holders” in the newly established PGA Tour Enterprises. The grants will be contingent upon “career accomplishments, recent achievements, future participation and services, and PGA TOUR membership status…” Strategic Sports Group, composed of team owners led by Fenway Sports Group, closed on the investment totaling up to $3 billion. “We greatly appreciate the opportunity to join PGA TOUR players in this important next phase of the PGA TOUR’s evolution,” John Henry, principal owner of Fenway Sports Group and manager of the Strategic Sports Group, said in a news release. “Our enthusiasm for this new venture stems from a very deep respect for this remarkable game and a firm belief in the expansive growth potential...
Andre Swanston is one of the few Black men to sell a tech company for nine figures. Swanston founded Tru Optik in 2013. He was driven to have a solid work ethic by his father, who ventured from the islands of St. Kitts and Nevis to the United States and worked several jobs to support his family, according to Forbes. The younger Swanston obtained a finance degree from La Salle University and a business degree from the University of Connecticut between 1999 and 2004. He would then secure a job as a financial advisor at Ameriprise Financial and later take on a post at JPMorgan Chase & Co. as vice president of investments between 2010 and 2012, per his LinkedIn. During the early 2000s, he owned nightclubs and restaurants, he shared in a Q&A with TransUnion. He also invested in local advertising to bring more exposure to his businesses. It was then that Swanston made a discovery that would prompt his pivot to the tech industry full time as the founder of Tru Optik. The system is “an...
Black Tech Nation Ventures (BTN.vc) has recently received new funding to further champion Black tech entrepreneurs. As previously reported by AfroTech, the VC fund’s mission is to invest in Black and diverse-led startups across the nation. To continue doing just that, F.N.B Corporation is making a $2.5 million equity commitment to BTN.vc, according to The Business Journal. “We are happy to be in partnership with FNB and appreciate their commitment to support Black Tech Nation Ventures’ mission to democratize access to VC capital and generate wealth for marginalized communities,” founding partner of BTN.vc Kelauni Jasmyn said, according to the outlet. As aforementioned by Jasmyn, the corporation’s funding “advances the company’s efforts to encourage growth in low– to moderate-income and marginalized communities.” “Black Tech Nation Ventures has a proven leadership team and a mission that aligns with our own focus on providing resources for diverse communities,” said Vincent J. Delie...
Earlier last week, the unprecedented announcement of Black Girls Code CEO and founder Kimberly Bryant being removed as the nonprofit’s head came in as a shock to the tech community. Kimberly Bryant alerted the public about the breaking news with a “press release” on Twitter. “Press release: So it’s 3 days before Christmas and you wake up to discover the organization YOU created and built from the ground up has been taken away by a rogue board with no notification,” Bryant wrote via Twitter. Press release: so it’s 3 days before Christmas and you wake up to discover the organization YOU created and built from the ground up has been taken away by a rogue board with no notification. VC: @BlackGirlsCode — kimberlybryant.eth (@6Gems) December 21, 2021 The tweet caused an uproar from her counterparts and followers who wanted to learn more details of the indefinite suspension and how to support Bryant. Recently, Bryant shared a statement with TechCrunch to further clear the air.
eqtble, a data analytics platform designed to create what they’re calling a “healthier workplace,” has announced that it has raised $2.7 million in its initial seed funding round. TechCrunch says that the company — which was founded by Joseph Ifiegbu, the former human resources technology head at Snap who also has a bit of history at WeWork — raised its $2.7 million with help from Initialized Capital, who led the funding round. The funding was also completed with participation from SB Opportunity Fund, RS Ventures and other venture capital firms and angel investors. The seed funding will reportedly be used to grow eqtble’s engineering team and its platform’s machine learning and visualization capabilities, and user acquisition. eqtble solves the problem of what’s known as “data fragmentation” amongst companies. When a new employee joins a company, his or her data is usually found in all different parts of the computer system at the company. As a result, companies can often miss...
The Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) has announced that they’ve hit the $250 million goal for their Black Economic Development Fund. As a result of hitting this goal, they’ve also announced that they’re investing in Black-led banks and real estate development opportunities. In a press release announcement, it was revealed that this fund was first funded last summer. It was part of LISC’s Project 10X, a $1 billion strategy to address racial gaps in health, wealth, and opportunity. The private investment fund has raised capital from 11 public and private corporations, with McKinsey and Company recently coming in with $15 million. Corporate investors in the Black Economic Development Fund include Netflix, which helped launch the fund, Paypal, Costco, Square, Inc., Aflac, Wayfair, DuPont, McKinsey and Co., ThermoFisher, HubSpot, and Dick’s Sporting Goods. “We’re excited about the outpouring of interest from impact investors because it speaks not only to the quality of the...
Thrilling, a Black- & Asian-owned secondhand marketplace, has announced that they’ve raised $8.5 million in a recent Series A funding round. The Series A funding round closed in April 2021 and was led by Prelude Ventures and joined by Defy, Congruent Ventures, Urban Us, Closed Loop, Phoenix Rising, and DLA Piper Venture. The funds raised will be used to bring on key team members and further develop Thrilling’s core technology, which offers innovative tools to support small business owners and a personalized, uniquely enjoyable shopping experience. The online marketplace, which is the latest company to join the growing trend of upcycling fashion, has a number of celebrity fans, including iconic costume designer Mona May and Zerina Akers, Beyoncé’s stylist and the owner/ CEO of Black-Owned Everything. Thrilling has also partnered with Banana Republic to offer a limited-edition capsule that’s inclusive of vintage pieces as part of the brand’s BETTER REPUBLIC sustainability efforts. The...
The growing number of Black and brown businesses in the United States goes hand-in-hand with the widening racial equity gap in the venture capital world. To combat this, Mitch Brooks and Tristan Wilkerson — general partners of High Street Equity Partners — are using their impact and expertise to close that gap for founders of underrepresented businesses across the country. According to theGrio, the duo has established a $15 million fund under the guise of principle and purpose to support businesses who have potential to thrive amid the pandemic. Brooks tells the outlet, “I just felt really moved to do something in the formal investment vehicle and I spoke to Tristan about that and we started to do our due diligence and here we are today.” theGrio shares that Brooks and Wilkerson — both long-time friends and angel investors in Black-owned businesses — named their fund after a historic street in Little Rock, AR to pay homage to what was once the center of business and innovation where...
Thanks to an emerging fund, Black entrepreneurs are finally getting the support they’ve been waiting on. Black Tech Nation — a multi-faceted tech organization — is described as building a “#DigitalWakanda through education, digital media, recruitment, and funding” for a family of “Black coders, innovators, creators, entrepreneurs, educators, and nerds,” according to the company’s website. In an interview with TechCrunch, Black Tech Nation general partner Kelauni Jasmyn declared the firm’s goal is to simply “get more Black people funded.” Jasmyn, alongside the rest of her team, has been working hard to make this a reality for the Pittsburgh-based organization through its newly-created $50 million first fund with the help of fellow GPs Sean Sebastian and David Motley. Super excited to be among the ranks of VCs purposefully putting #VentureCapital behind #BlackTech , Black-led startups, and entrepreneurs of color! @blacktechnation is more than a community…it's a #DigitalWakanda . Now...