Throughout her time as a business maven and investor, Serena Williams has always worked to find new ways to play a role in advancing the Black community. Her mission has yet to falter with the announcement of her latest tech investment.
According to a press release, Williams has invested in Karat — a cloud platform for companies to conduct technical interviews. Specifically, her financial support is for the growth of the tech startup’s Brilliant Black Minds program.
As previously reported by AfroTech, the program works to help more engineer positions be filled by Black talent. The mission is to take the current five percent of Black engineers in the tech industry to double digits, according to Karat’s website.
“The technology industry is focused on solving some of the world’s biggest challenges that impact all of us. My focus is ensuring the solutions to those challenges are developed by all of us,” Williams said in the press release. “There has never been a shortage of brilliance in Black America; only limited access and opportunities extended to our community. That is why I am proud to team up with companies like Karat who are taking actionable steps to bring more diversity and equity to the industry, as well as call on others to be part of the change.”
Brilliant Black Minds
Under the motto “Break barriers and change the game,” Williams will be working with Karat to help Black software engineers. In addition, she will work to help those who are aspiring by teaching them how to become a “Champion of Brilliance” just like her, as well as getting more eyes from tech organizations on them.
“We’re living in a world where engineering time grows more valuable every day, yet organizations are grappling with a multi-decade shortage of software engineers. The current approach is to source talent from the same talent pool over and over again, which reinforces the industry’s lack of diversity and makes it harder to find technical talent,” said Mohit Bhende, Co-Founder and CEO of Karat. “The Brilliant Black Minds program helps solve this major business challenge by giving organizations access to a deeper, interview-ready talent pool. More engineers ultimately unlocks more engineering time, driving diverse and powerful innovations.”
To learn more about Karat’s Brilliant Black Minds, click here.
