The team exemplifies the motto of “for the people, by the people” — which makes their recent welcome into Google for Startups Black Founders Fund’s Class of 2021 a more than befitting decision out of the tech giant’s 50 recipients.

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As previously reported by AfroTech, selected Black founders each received non-dilutive funding of $100,000 from the Black Founders Fund’s capital of $10 million. The team’s passion has been driving their app and now this funding gives them the fuel necessary to put on for their community at an even higher level.

While known for their quick turnaround on fulfilling their users’ needs on their app, the team plans on using the funding to expand on their social media presence, deepen the social aspect for trades and continue innovating ways to make trading easier — which all ultimately leads to their overarching mission of bringing in more sneakerheads to their current community of over 70,000 members.

As Tradeblock continues to grow, Malveaux hopes to be a part of passing down the team’s wealth of knowledge from their startup experience to those who don’t get the opportunity of obtaining such information — especially inner cities in America.

“I did grow up in what they would call the hood and people from my neighborhood don’t get this type of information,” Malveaux tells AfroTech. “Nobody out there knows the first thing about starting a business — let alone a tech-enabled startup. For me the biggest takeaway from this is being able to hand down that information to people in the neighborhood and give them access to these things.”

Google for Startups Black Founders Fund

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