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Greenwood continues its mission toward economic empowerment for the Black and Latino community. The digital banking platform just acquired Valence to provide communities with support for professional development and job recruiting. The news comes on the heels of Greenwood’s acquisition of The Gathering Spot and solidifies the brand’s stance as a place where our people can not only learn skills for a better financial future but also get equipped with resources to survive and thrive. Valence was established in 2019 by Kobie Fuller, who is also the General Partner at Upfront Ventures. He, alongside Emily Slade and LaMer Walker, wanted to create a network specifically designed to help Black professionals connect with companies and vice versa. Now, Greenwood will leverage the company’s pipeline recruiting database to help companies diversify workforces of all levels from early career to the C-suite. This is a legendary move set to equip Greenwood’s community of roughly one million Black...
Since opening its platform for applications in March 2020, Valence’s membership has exploded. They managed to build an impressive network of Black professionals and creatives spanning industries such as tech, entertainment, sports, and finance. Many large companies now recruit through the platform in an effort to pull in more diverse candidates. “We came to market with a real focus on building community, ensuring that the community had access to one another on the platform, access to opportunities through jobs and companies that were offering those opportunities, and access to capital through the valence funding network,” explains Emily Slade, one of the Valence co-founders. Now, Valence is going a step further to help Black professionals thrive and ascend the ranks in their chosen industries through BONDS — their new mentorship program for Black professionals at or near the executive career levels. What is Valence BONDS? “It’s a membership-based community that’s really focused on...
Valence — a newly-launched platform designed to connect the Black tech community and help close the wealth gap — announced that it raised $5.25 million in its Series A round. GGV Capital was the lead investor during this round and GGV’s Managing Partner Hans Tung will join Valence’s Board of Directors. Other investors included Upfront Ventures, Valence’s initial investor, Silicon Valley Blank, and SoftBank Opportunity Fund. Launched in November 2019, Valence’s mission is “ to provide a digital home for Black talent to connect, access opportunities and aggregate their power.” In the nine months since opening applications to their platform, the community has grown to 10,000 Black professionals and boasts industry leaders such as Arlan Hamilton, Julia Collins, and Paul Judge as members. In addition to providing a space for Black professionals to connect, Valence invites top employers to recruit from the platform. Valence also works with tech companies to help them build diverse and...
Founded in January of 2019, Valence is on a mission to unlock the global power of Black professionals to create massive economic and social progress. Founders Kobie Fuller, Emily Slade, and La Mer Walker have designed a platform to connect the enormous global community of talented Black professionals with the top companies in Silicon Valley and beyond. “We are a community of thought leaders, executives, creators, innovators and seekers. Whether they’re seasoned execs or passionate up-and-comers, our members represent the best Black talent in a few core industries that we’re initially focused on,” Fuller said How Valence Was Born About two years ago, Fuller was struck by the number of companies who approached him with questions about how to diversify their workforces. He realized that both tech companies and Black professionals lacked the proper tools to connect with each other meaningfully. He tried to help companies by tapping into his personal network, but that had predictable...
Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta —the company that owns Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook, which collectively have a combined daily active user base of 3.3 billion—will be implementing sweeping changes to content moderation. The announcement was made via a Reel on Zuckerberg’s Instagram . Anyone on the internet knows that, over the last five years, content has often taken precedence over real connection. Considering the incoming presidential administration and the immense influence platforms like Facebook and Instagram have on what content is seen or suppressed, it’s unsurprising that Meta is overhauling its approach ahead of this political transition. This is especially relevant given the strained relationship Donald Trump has had with social media companies like Facebook and X (formerly known as Twitter) over the years. Content moderation has become a highly polarizing issue in the United States, especially due to the political nature of our cultural spaces and the increasing...
While working in the emergency room, Dr. Elizabeth Clayborne’s observation led her to create a medical device. NasaClip During her residency in Washington D.C., Clayborne noticed a surprising number of people coming to the emergency room (ER) with nosebleeds. Clayborne found this issue’s prevalence unexpected, as medical professionals consider it a “lower acuity issue.” She soon considered ways to assist patients with this medical condition and recognized technology could bridge the gap. Clayborne created NasaClip in 2015 after completing her residency. Its first prototype, described as the Band-Aid for nosebleeds, would launch to market in the years following. “The problem was we didn’t have anything to give patients in the waiting room… something to stop their nose bleeding,” Clayborne said during an interview with AFROTECH™. “So, I was always taping together tongue depressors to make a clip. And I realized like, ‘Why am I doing this? Why do I have to maneuver together some...
In case you missed it, AFROTECH™ Executive is heading to New Jersey. If you’re unfamiliar with the event, previous stops included Seattle, WA; Washington, D.C.; Brooklyn, NY; and more. As the event heads to Newark, NJ, on June 28, attendees will have the opportunity to explore topics like practical AI applications, equitable resources for entrepreneurs, tech advancements, and innovative economies. In addition, the highly anticipated AFROTECH Executive Newark will allow attendees to hear from speakers like A ngela Rye, principal and CEO of IMPACT Strategies and co-host of the Native Land Pod. Her fireside chat will focus on bridging the gap for an equitable community. The conversation, moderated by Black Tech Green Money host Will Lucas, will explore a world where opportunities and access are endless, ensuring that entrepreneurs who represent the community are equipped with the tools needed to be successful and can inspire others to build a more accessible, diverse, and thriving...
As an undergrad, Kofi Asante developed a knack for figuring out how to connect dots without a roadmap to guide him. Being rooted in problem-solving is what landed him at Uber Freight post-grad. The platform, launched in 2017, was created as a hassle-free way to connect shippers with carriers. During his time at Uber Freight as a strategy and partnerships lead, Asante went on to launch its sister company Power Loop — a technology that allows you to load trailers ahead of time and aims to reduce driver detention time. With the company also bridging autonomous trucks together with Uber Freight, its operational model is similar to one of the next steps in his journey of working with Elroy Air. As its vice president of strategy & business development, Asante is a Black executive in aerospace. “[Elroy Air] has been around for five years and around that time they’d been around for maybe a year and a half or two. And they didn’t have any business people yet. It was all engineers. [Charles...
Praxis Labs, a Black and Asian-woman-founded company utilizing the power of virtual reality (VR) for justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) training, just raised $15.5 million in an oversubscribed Series A round. This is the second major funding round for the company, which raised $3.2 million in February 2021, AfroTech previously reported. According to their website, Elise Smith and Heather Shen, both Stanford graduates, launched Praxis Labs in late 2019 to leverage their unique experiences and perspectives to “build the most efficacious and impactful learning experiences.” In a press release, Praxis Labs indicated that the financing round was co-led by Norwest Venture Partners and Emerson Collective. Other investors in the round included Penny Jar Capital (anchored by Steph Curry), Precursor Ventures, Concrete Rose Capital, Ulu Ventures, SoftBank’s SB Opportunity Fund and Firework Ventures. “Our society is more segregated than ever, and the workplace is often the most...
Graduate researcher Lindsay Davis made history as the first African American student to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry at The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA), according to a press release. “It feels good to be a trailblazer,” Lindsay Davis shared in a UTA press release. “I am proud to set an example for underrepresented minorities who dream of using their STEM talents to make the world a better place.” Davis’ involvement in STEM research centers on treatments for tuberculosis (TB), an infectious disease commonly impacting the lungs. “We want to understand on a molecular level how FGD operates, since it is the target for further drug development for multiple drug-resistant forms of TB,” Davis revealed in a UTA press release. “Once we discover the mode of action of FGD, researchers can create treatments that more effectively target the enzyme and cure patients with drug-resistant strains of TB.” Davis’ extensive research has propelled mentorship opportunities for two women of color,...
When Whitney Beatty & Ebony McGee Andersen first came up with the idea of Josephine and Billie’s cannabis speakeasy, they knew they’d be up against some challenges. As working mothers and Black women in the cannabis space, Beatty & Andersen also knew what they had to do to overcome those challenges. “Women, in general, have issues with access, but Black women in the cannabis space? Oh, the stories,” Beatty tells AfroTech. “And we knew we’d be facing the same thing — which is why we are so lucky that we got Jay-Z and The Parent Company to invest in our concept.” Josephine and Billie’s aims to create an inclusive and equitable society and a legal cannabis industry in which Black and minority entrepreneurs have the opportunity, access, and financial and logistical support to build peak levels of success and value for their communities. “In my former role as an urban planner, I can certainly attest how important investment is to the success of a business,” said Andersen. “But, more than...
Black-owned startup Meroxa just secured a Series A funding round to make operating way easier for businesses. TechCrunch is reporting that the data operations facilitator — which is owned by Chicago, IL native, and current Bay Area, CA resident, DeVaris Brown — successfully raised $15 million in a Series A funding round led by Drive Capital. Existing investors Root, Amplify and Hustle Fund also participated in this round, which together with the company’s previously undisclosed $4.2 million seed round now brings total funding in the company to $19.2 million. What Meroxa does is something that every company could possibly benefit from. By implementing the program into your company, you’ll be able to “feed” data to the system from different tools, and the program processes it all without expensive and confusing technology. “We aren’t a point-to-point solution,” Meroxa co-founder and CTO Ali Hamidi explained to TechCrunch. “When you set up the connection, you aren’t taking data from...
Tech startup Bevy — the only enterprise virtual, hybrid, and in-person event community platform on the market — announced that the company has just secured a $40 million Series C funding round in an effort to continue helping companies expand their global customer communities and drive radical change for diversity and inclusion in tech. The funding round was led by Accel Partners — for the second time in the past year — with participation from other investors such as LinkedIn, Qualtrics co-founder Ryan Smith, Upfront Ventures, as well as over 25 top Black leaders in the tech industry. Bevy — currently operating with a completely remote workforce located in 10 different countries on four continents — plans to use the new funding to expand its team from 100 employees to 250 later this year. Not only does this new funding round mark a major milestone for Bevy, it also outlines the company’s intentions to establish more diversity in tech so it deliberately carved out more space to allow...
As maternal mortality rates continue to skyrocket amongst Black and Brown communities, the need for medical accountability continues to increase. The Irth app, to that end, hopes to bridge the gap between accountability and communication. According to Black News, the NYC-based and Black woman-owned app — which is now available in the Google Play and Apple app stores — has a specific aim in mind: to target racism and bias in health care. The company says their name is inspired by the word “birth,” but without the “b” for “bias.” Irth was founded by Kimberly Seales Allers, a former senior editor at Essence, a five-time author, and a maternal health advocate. For her, it was most important for doctors and other health care providers to be accountable in how they treat their Black and Brown patients — and if they couldn’t be, then it was up to the public to make them. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Irth (@theirthapp) “When I had my first child, I asked white co-workers...
The health disparities that exist for Black and brown people in America are largely attributed to their unequal access to healthcare and a lack of accessible resources, including medication, proper insurance, and nutritious food options. Although these communities have the most health issues related to food and nutrition, there are still few products on the market that exist to encourage healthier living practices. This led businessman and founder, Marc Washington, to launch his own wellness startup to help cater to the needs of his community. Muniq — a prebiotic consumer wellness brand designed to help people improve their gut health — was created by Washington as part of his life-long mission to help others get ahold of chronic health issues they battle. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Supergut (@supergut) As a Princeton and Harvard graduate with years of experience in the health and wellness industry, Washington was inspired to launch Muniq because of his little...