In any sports competition, coaches go into each game with a specific strategy. From determining who will be a part of the starting lineup to tricking plays to throw the opponent off, every game is built with tools to ensure the team’s success. But what happens when the tried-and-true approach to the game no longer works? For the more traditional and antiquated coaches, they will more than likely stick to the routine, hoping everything will work itself out. However, for those who desire to see change on the fields or courts, the coach will implement a new strategy and approach aimed at getting the results they’ve planned for. The same can be paralleled in the world of tech. Although the industry is experiencing challenging times due to the current job climate, the field still suffers from diversity. According to a 2023 McKinsey Institute for Black Economic Mobility report, Black people represent 12% of the United States workforce, while only 8% hold tech jobs. The people at...

21 Savage is now a tech investor. According to TechCrunch, the rapper has invested in the seed round of Sound.xyz, a platform that aims to help artists get money through (non-fungible tokes) NFTs. The seed funding round totaled $5 million in capital influx. “Sound.xyz is a new startup looking to help recording artists monetize their community through NFTs, as the startup looks to build out a suite of tools designed to bring musicians into the so-called ‘web3’ fold,” reports the outlet. “The startup released its first product earlier this month, Listening Parties, which enable artists to sell NFTs tagged to the release of new songs.” While he’s on board with the new startup’s mission, 21 Savage investing in a tech business isn’t surprising. In 2018, the rapper said he was through with blowing his money on things like jewelry and cars. Instead, he said, he wanted to invest in things that help his long-term bottom line, including real estate and startups. Just one year later, Rolling...

Newly launched cryptocurrency firm Meta4 Fund Management (Meta4) announced a bold fund seeking to invest in the ever-growing cryptocurrency space. The Meta4 NFT Fund aims to collect $100 million through a partnership with Andreessen Horowitz operating as the lead investor. As AfroTech previously told you, n on-fungible tokens (NFTs) are a “one-of-a-kind trading card” useful for establishing ownership of photos, videos and digital files through blockchain technology. “NFTs are more than just pixels. It’s the intersection of culture, technology, and finance. It represents a new way of thinking about the ways in which ‘value’ is accrued, harnessed, and distributed,” said Brandon Buchanan, managing partner of Meta4 Fund Management, according to Reuters. Currently, the amateur fund is hoping to strike it big with highly popular NTFS including CryptoPunk, CryptToadz, BoredApe Yacht Club and Zed Run, Markets Insider reports. The Meta4 Capital fund was an initiative to purchase digital land...

When the Andreessen Horowitz firm launched in 2009, they put a focus on hiring black people and backing black entrepreneurs like Tristan Walker of Walker & Company Brands, Donnel Baird of BlocPower and Chris Bennett of Wonderschool. And although those bets paid off, their newest venture makes sure that diversity in tech is prioritized on a wider scale. The newly created Cultural Leadership Fund has two basic goals: Connect the greatest cultural leaders in the world to the best new tech companies and enable more young African Americans to enter the tech industry. In an announcement on the firm’s website, firm co-founder Ben Horowitz explained that while backing black founders and hiring black people within their own firm was a step in the right direction, it didn’t address diversity widely enough: “Still, we felt that we were leaving opportunity on the table in two important dimensions. First, we had not systematically partnered with the established cultural leaders and second, we...