Bootup has secured new funding. According to a blog post, Bootup — a company that aims to help individuals land jobs in tech — has raised a seed round totaling $2.1 million. The round was led by Kapor Capital, in addition to participation from Lightship Capital, other Black-led funds, investors, and more. “I feel that allocation of capital is the most useful form of activism in a capitalist society,” said Founder and CEO of Bootup, Chandler Malone, in a statement. “This idea was inspired by a conversation with Candice Matthews Brackeen back in 2018 and led to us being intentional about raising from all Black-led funds and angels for our seed round as our work is directly focused on targeting the wealth gap.”

Cincinnati-based venture capital firm, Lightship Capital, is on a mission to raise $50 million to invest in underrepresented founders from the Midwest area. The Black-owned firm is headed by investing power couple, Candice Matthews Brackeen and Brian Brackeen, who both have one goal in mind — to invest in the next wave of innovative entrepreneurs that have been overlooked by other investors. The lack of startup funding for women and people of color has been highlighted in recent years via studies like digitalundivided’s ProjectDiane , which reports Black women-led startups raised only 0.0006 percent of the $424.7 billion in tech venture funding raised since 2009. In light of the known disproportional funding opportunities, Lightship’s General Partner, Candice, believes founders of color are worth investing in. “I’m a capitalist at heart. There’s market failure. You can really take advantage of it,” she said, according to The Wall Street Journal . In the midst of the Black Lives...