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Symphonic Capital has launched its inaugural fund targeting overlooked founders in fintech and health care. Symphonic Capital’s Inception Sydney Thomas, who always displayed an “entrepreneurial spirit,” founded the venture capital (VC) firm in 2022. Having already dedicated years to being a serial investor, her work in venture capital began in 2016. It was during that time that she observed a common pattern: Many firms placed broad bets on numerous founders, accepting that most would fail in hopes that a few would yield outsized returns. However, she believed it was possible to have a more refined approach that would put more early-staged founders in a better position. “While it is still incredibly risky to work in early stage, a way to actually de-risk your investment is to have a much more structured and focused support strategy with those companies that increases the likelihood that they graduate from pre-seed to seed, and increases the likelihood that they graduate from seed to...
A new venture has launched to amplify Caribbean founders. Caribbean Venture Collective Caribbean Venture Collective — founded by Daniel Smith (Keepingly) and Mita Carriman (Adventurely), both Techstars alumni of Caribbean descent — has launched to help founders realize their full potential, a ccording to a news release shared with AFROTECH™ . Entrepreneurs will be supported across eight impact verticals: travel/hospitality tech, logistics and supply chain, proptech, agritech, climate tech, fintech, healthtech, and edtech. The move will also help to improve a region that spans over 30 countries and territories, with a combined population of more than 40 million. “Having been a founder in Trinidad and then moving to The U.S, realizing that one of the biggest issues that most founders face is around funding and being able to have access to funding and understand the market sizes, etc… What we’re doing is to ensure that we build a pipeline,” Smith told AFROTECH™. “One of the biggest...
This Black women-founded company has accepted an acquisition deal four years after its founding. Clutch, a digital marketing marketplace co-founded by Madison Long and Simone May that connects creators to businesses looking for content creation, was acquired by Plaiced, a self-serve platform for advertisers, TechCrunch reports. “The creator economy is growing rapidly, we knew to remain competitive and really be able to take over market share, an acquisition would be the strongest next step,” Long explained, according to TechCrunch. The outlet details that when Long met Plaiced CEO Kaaveh Shoamanesh in May 2024, the idea of his company acquiring Clutch started brewing. Multiple factors came into play to sign off on the deal: Long was on her own, helming Clutch after May’s departure in June 2023, and trying to keep up with the times of the creator industry with generative AI coming into play, TechCrunch reported. So, joining forces with Plaiced was the right fit for Long. “The...
Pharrell Williams’ action of clearing student debt has contributed to a good cause. As AFROTECH™ previously told you, the record producer and philanthropist surprised five NAACP student leaders with the news at the start of the Something In the Water Festival in Washington D.C. on June 17, 2022. Among the recipients at the time were Robyn Hughes, a junior at Southern University; Damarius Davis, an alumni of North Carolina A&T; Jamie Turner, an alumni of Norfolk State University; Channing Hill, a senior at Howard University; and Devan Vilfrard, a senior at Florida A&M University. Breaking: #SomethingInTheWater just announced they’re paying the student debt of all 6 panelists/NAACP members! #CancelStudentDebt pic.twitter.com/BqBS9AqIoc — NAACP (@NAACP) June 17, 2022 “Throughout my 3 years at Howard University I had personally accumulated over $18,000 in student loan debt and that figure becomes multiplied when you add on the loans my parents have accumulated,” Hill wrote in her...
Ghetto Film School (GFS) — the award-winning nonprofit created to help future storytellers by educating, uplifting, and supporting their development — is backed by some of Hollywood’s best including Issa Rae and Yara Shahidi. Now, it plans to amplify its efforts further as Montea Robinson has become the first Black woman CEO. “Whether you know how to write a script or point a camera, we’re going to put a camera in your hands and get you to shoot something with it,” she said in an exclusive interview with Variety. “You’re writing, shooting, directing all of the work…We see filmmaking as a craft that we want to teach our students, but also as a secondary education that helps them understand the agency they have over their own story.” Robinson will be responsible for increasing GFS’s reach and influence while focusing on developing and creating career opportunities for participants. In addition, Robinson plans to make GFS programs more accessible to students while strengthening...