Jay-Z just backed premier beauty brand Madison Reed in an investment totaling $33 million, Forbes reports. The round was led by Sandbridge Capital and Jay-Z’s Marcy Venture Partners also participated in the round. What’s more, the investment brings the San Francisco-based company’s total capital to nearly $220 million, according to Bloomberg.

Kenyan-based startup Wowzi — created to transform social media users into brand influencers — has secured $3.2 million in its latest seed round. TechCrunch reports the round was led by Africa-focused venture capital firm 4DX Ventures. Participating investors were ​To.org, Golden Palm Investments, LoftyInc Capital, Afropreneur Angels, and Future Africa. Andela co-founder Christina Sass, and former Andela executives Jessica Chervin, Justin Ziegler, as well as Johnny Falla, who is currently the chief development and growth officer at Wowzi, also participated. The new funds will spearhead operations in Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa to fulfill the company’s goal to expand beyond their current scope of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. “We are primarily focused on expanding across Africa in 2022 and in other emerging markets globally,” Wowzi co-founder and CEO Brian Mogeni said, according to TechCrunch. “We are also adding new product capabilities and features, as we continue to develop our...

Harlem Capital, a diversity -focused venture capital firm, led a $3.7 million seed round for Singuli, according a press release provided to AfroTech. Founded in 2019 by Benjamin Kelly and Thierry Bertin-Mahieux, Singuli created an AI-powered platform that allows retailers to use consumer behavior to better inform inventory decisions. This seed round is the first major funding deal the company has closed, which includes participation from High Alpha Capital, AVG Basecamp Fund, existing investors Interlace Ventures and LAUNCH, as well as angel investors Paul Goodman and Darwish Gani. The fresh funding also includes a previously unannounced $700,000 pre-seed round. “Our mission is to provide commerce brands of all sizes with state of the art tools to make optimal inventory decisions,” Singuli co-founder and CEO Benjamin Kelly told AfroTech. “This is a gnarly space and there are lots of tricky problems.” Kelly was inspired to launch Singuli with Bertin-Mahieux after working as a data...

The natural haircare beauty market will soon have a new go-to source for its next innovation. Black women-owned beauty brand You Go Natural (YGN) headwraps has announced the close of a $2 million seed funding round as it looks to expand its operations. According to a press release shared with AfroTech, the funding round was led by Brand Foundry Venture Partners as well as other investors such as Capital Factory, Willow Growth Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners. YGN has shared that its next plan of action for the funds includes the round expanding its Dallas-based production facility from 1,500 to 7,500 square feet and growing its staff to reach over 100 employees. “As a Black female founder, I have unique market insight into the world of ethnic beauty,” founder Monique Little shared in a statement. “I know where the industry is way oversaturated, and I know where there are gaps in innovation and solutions that have yet to be introduced. The vision of YGN goes way beyond...

WorkChew — a Black women-founded startup that transforms hotels and restaurants into on-demand workspaces — just announced an oversubscribed $2.5 million seed funding round raised to further the company’s mission. The round was led by Harlem Capital and saw participation from other VC firms such as Wilshire Lane Partners, Invictus Advisory Group, Techstars Ventures, and RW Capital Investments, Inc. Additionally, individual investments came from angel investors, including Kabbage co-founder Kathryn Petralia, Etsy co-founder Chris Maguire, Kyle Tibbits of Paradox Capital, and Alex Chan, formerly of UBER. The startup plans to use the new funding to further build out its team, product development, and marketing to help increase customer acquisition and build supply across the U.S. WorkChew was co-founded by CEO Maisha Burt and COO Allyson McDougal back in 2018, who at the time were two remote workers suffering from inconsistencies of not having flexible spaces to work from. According to...

Over the last year, we’ve greatly stressed the importance of prioritizing mental health in Black communities due to our history of pushing those issues aside. Now, tele-therapy company Hurdle is extending its platform to remove those barriers for Black and people of color. According to a press release, Hurdle — an innovative digital mental health platform — has announced today that it closed a $5 million Series Seed funding round co-led by 406 Ventures and Seae Ventures with participation from F-Prime. Hurdle plans to use this new capital to strategically-scale its tech-enabled platform to help provide support for culturally diverse populations’ behavioral health needs, especially in Black communities. “With depression spiking in Black and minority communities, this year is an inflection point in mental healthcare. The events of 2020 present a unique opportunity for Hurdle to create solutions that work for anyone, but most importantly, for the most underserved populations,” said...

Malomo — a Black-founded information technology startup company that specializes in e-commerce — announced that it raised a $2.8 million seed round today to expand its services and provide a new marketing channel for the Shopify retailers, TechCrunch reports . Financing for the round was led by San Francisco-based firm, Base10 Partners , as well as New York’s Harlem Capital . According to Harlem Capital, the announcement comes as “the largest Seed round by a Black founder in Indiana to date.” We are excited to announce our investment in @gomalomo $2.8mm Seed round, the largest Seed round by a Black founder in Indiana to date. The round was led by three underrepresented funds with us, @Base10Partners and @VitalizeVC https://t.co/HZDfaVnqLH — Harlem Capital (@HarlemCapital) October 2, 2020 Founder and CEO Yaw Aning shared that this funding round will help the startup resolve issues retail clients experience when working with shipping companies and offer a better customer experience....

There’s a growing movement of zero-waste grocery companies in America building toward a sustainable future that will ultimately eliminate packaging waste. Zero Grocery — the U.S.’s first online zero-waste grocery store which also happens to be Black-owned — has established this same goal to remove single-use plastics from our food system. Courtesy of Zero Grocery Aligned with their overall mission to prioritize a cleaner, healthier future, the e-commerce company announced today that they’ve successfully closed a $3 million seed round, raising their total capital to $4.7 million, a blog post reports . Funds from this round come from a large group of investors that include, but are not limited to — Marlon Nichols of MaC Venture Capital, Arlan Hamilton, City Light, Forward Venture Capital, Gaingels, Incite, Luma Launch, and 1984, who provided the biggest check of them all. Since Zero Grocery’s inception, founder Zuleyka Strasner has tirelessly championed the company’s sustainability...