All results
During a CES 2026 panel titled “Getting to the First Million,” Lockie Andrews, angel investor and founder of Catalyst Consulting, offered advice for how to succeed as a startup. Be Intentional With Your Customers Andrews noted that through her various roles, she has interacted with 12 companies each month. She believes one of the biggest problems for startups as they strive to hit that first $100,000 mark is a sense of desperation for their first check, which may lead them to select customers who are less likely to stay committed to the product and offer feedback as the company grows. “They end up panicking and feeling like ‘Oh wow, I completely left the zone that I was supposed to be playing in, but I need to appease these customers because investors will be looking at that performance,'” she mentioned. “So, make sure you take your time with those customers, interview them to make sure they understand where you are, to hopefully push you through all the difficulties that you’ll...
Black woman-led skincare brand Topicals has closed another round of funding, per an exclusive report from The Business of Fashion. Topicals Founded in 2020 by Olamide Ayomikun Olowe, Topicals was born out of her search for a solution for those with hyperpigmentation, eczema, and dark spots. CNBC reports Olowe also struggled with hyperpigmentation and Pseudofolliculitis Barbae (PFB). Per its website, the Topicals product lineup features its faded under eye masks, serum, brightening cleansing bar, and more. She teamed up with Claudia Teng, who previously worked as a dermatology clinical research assistant, to launch the science-backed brand, with both women ultimately ditching their plans to attend medical school. Topicals later secured $14.8 million in funding before Olowe was 26 years old — as AFROTECH™ previously reported — making history as the youngest Black woman to raise $10 million in funding in 2022. Funding Now, WNBA player Angel Reese, which Forbes lists as one of the...
Serena Williams loves investing in the future. Per Business Insider, the athlete has been investing since her tennis career through Serena Ventures. Launched in 2014, the investment arm later went public in 2019 with the aim of supporting diverse founders, especially women and people of color, per the outlet. “I’ve been investing like eight years before I finished my tennis career, or maybe even longer. I love investing in women, I love investing in underrepresented founders, and I also love investing in the future,” Williams said during CES 2026. “I’m never gonna change the landscape of people investing in us, but I definitely will change the noise and let people know that it’s great to invest in us,” she added. Williams’ session at CES was laser-focused on the health sector, particularly on wearable biotech. Williams uses Lingo, an over-the-counter glucose sensor that can be worn for 14 days and attaches to the back of the upper arm, according to its website. The sensor can send...
A vote has ruled in favor of closing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), per reports. Corporation For Public Broadcasting The CPB was established by Congress through the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 to help fund PBS, NPR, and more than 1,000 public television and radio stations with the overarching goal of informing and empowering the public, according to information on the organization’s website. CPB reported that in the 2025 fiscal year, it supported 386 radio grantees and 158 television grantees, 244 of which were described as “rural.” Furthermore, CPB shared that it directed more than 70% of its federal funding to local public media stations, with 5% allocated towards operations . Republicans Claims Against CPB As The Guardian reports , Trump and Republicans have long argued that CPB was biased. In April 2025, Trump drafted a memo to Congress, stating that NPR and PBS “spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news,'” per the outlet. Slashing funding for the...
Beauty trend setter Pat McGrath is exploring an asset sale of her beauty company. Pat McGrath Labs was founded in 2015 and launched its first product, Gold 001, a gold-pigmented mixing liquid used on eyes, lips, limbs, or lashes. It “sold out in record-breaking time” following its launch on social media, according to the brand’s website. One thousand units sold on the site in six minutes, Modaes reported. The brand is sold at retailers including Sephora, Ulta, Nordstrom, Bluemercury, Bergdorf Goodman, Harrods, Revolve, and Selfridges, notes the brand’s website. At Selfridges, it became the retailer’s best-selling beauty brand after launching in stores in April 2019. McGrath’s makeup looks have also appeared on runways for Dior, Prada, Gucci, and Balenciaga, per Pat McGrath Labs. McGrath has served as British Vogue’s beauty editor-at-large since 2017, as AFROTECH™ previously reported. In 2018, Pat McGrath Labs reached a $1 billion valuation, supported by a $60 million investment from...
Isaiah Chavous isn’t anti-AI, but he is on a mission to protect what makes art human. Chavous’s stance is reflected in his footprint as a founder, which marries his passion for music. His mother, a single parent, introduced him to soulful music as a child, but he would take it to new heights by becoming a musician, something uncommon in his family. At age 13, he was making and recording his own music. He described himself as becoming a “bit of a geek” in the band from sixth grade through high school, when he solidified his passion for music, leading him to create a brand called Wifi Kids. “I used it as a vessel to be creative, not only to make music and put out music, but to host events and make merchandise and get into fashion,” Chavous told AFROTECH™. He continued, “It also correlated to my first introduction to technical products — building websites, designing things, becoming efficient in Adobe Photoshop and Premiere. And I remember having a cracked version of all of the...
The U.S. Department of Education will be deploying a new round of mental health grants. According t o Education Week, the Education Department will distribute more than $208 million to school-based mental health programs to train and hire additional providers and psychologists. The funding follows the Trump administration’s decision in April to cut over 200 health grants, totaling $1 billion, for recipients who incorporated diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) commitments into hiring, recruitment, training, and certification practices, notes a separate Education Week article. In a news release, the Department of Education claim the grants that were discontinued prioritized “the racial characteristics of providers and divisive ideologies, instead of focusing on competent provision of proven mental health interventions for students.” Now, the Education Department has awarded a new round of grants to 65 recipients. Education Week reports that 33 of those recipients are “rural states...
Fintech platform Esusu has raised new funding to help improve financial outcomes for Americans. The company was founded in 2018 by Wemimo Abbey and Samir Goel (co-CEOs) to help people boost their credit scores. Its inspiration came from their own struggles because both grew up in immigrant families with limited financial resources. “When we came here, we didn’t have a credit score. We went to one of the biggest financial institutions to borrow money; we were turned away and had to go borrow from a predatory lender who wanted to lend at over 400% interest rate,” Abbey told CNBC, referring to his family’s experience. This inspired Esusu’s mission to help ensure race, background, or zip code is not a barrier to economic mobility. Its platform can report on-time rent payments to credit bureaus such as TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian, its website mentions. Esusu states that when more renters see their scores increase, they are more likely to remain on top of monthly payments, renew...
A newly founded AI startup is making waves in the tech world with one of the largest seed rounds in recent memory. According to Bloomberg, Unconventional AI, launched just two months ago by former Databricks AI lead Naveen Rao, secured $475 million in seed funding at a $4.5 billion valuation to develop a new generation of energy-efficient computers designed specifically for artificial intelligence. The funding round was co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from Lux Capital, DCVC, Databricks, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, per Bloomberg. Rao also invested $10 million of his own funds on the same terms as other investors. The company is exploring a larger funding goal of up to $1 billion, according to TechCrunch. Bloomberg notes that Unconventional AI draws inspiration from biology, where living systems must operate within strict energy limits yet achieve high efficiency. Rao highlighted the human brain as an example, noting it can perform...
Elaine Welteroth, journalist and founder of nonprofit birthFUND, wants people to help Black women and women of color access supportive birth care. In a viral TikTok video reportedly captured in the triage area of Dallas Regional Medical Center in Mesquite, TX, patient Karrie Jones is asked a series of questions, such as her due date, by a white nurse while Jones is sitting in a wheelchair in pain, minutes away from giving birth, per NBC News. Jones supposedly had to wait more than half an hour before being admitted to the hospital. Less than a week later, a separate viral video showed an incident of reported negligence in Franciscan Hospital in Crown Point, IL, with patient Mercedes Wells, notes NBC News. She was experiencing contractions, which she told the outlet meant she wouldn’t be far from delivering. However, she spent six hours at the hospital and was reportedly never seen by a doctor, just a nurse, and was sent home. Within eight minutes of leaving the hospital, her...
A new cohort of small businesses has received a financial boost to power their business with AI. The C oramino Fund Through The Coramino Fund, the investment arm of Kevin Hart and Juan Domingo Beckmann’s tequila company Gran Coramino, $10,000 grants have been allocated to small business owners over the past three years so they can utilize AI training provided by 1st Street Partnerships to improve their operations. The program was launched in partnership with Local Initiatives Support Corp. (LISC) and is part of a $1.5 million commitment to support more than 150 under-resourced entrepreneurs across the U.S. and Mexico as they compete with larger companies, according to information provided to AFROTECH™. “According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 20% of new businesses fail within their first year, and nearly 50% fail by their fifth year. The most successful entrepreneurs — locally and nationally — are the ones that have support, whether from their networks, communities,...
What began as unfamiliar territory for Haley Bryant has become her mission — to democratize access to venture capital through her work at Hustle Fund. The Boston native comes from a family of entrepreneurs. Her father worked at Bank of America in London and later launched an investment business and then a consultancy. She was inspired to bet on herself throughout her career by observing her father’s blueprint as well as that of other family members. Her mother owns a public policy consultancy, and her sister is a leader of Sick Sad Girlz Club, a community of more than 30,000 women with chronic illness. Bryant initially planned to become a journalist and attended the University of Virginia, earning a degree in media studies and communications by 2010. However, she was always drawn to technology, she says, which led her to Apple and its retail stores after college. She onboarded as an associate and, within four years, rose to senior manager, leading stores that were earning millions...
Miami-based founders Justin Elliott and Jahreem Samuels have scored an investment for their AI and blockchain-verified commerce platform. The pair’s journeys brought them together, and they became united in business through shared pain points in their respective industries. Elliott explored mechanical engineering while in high school, but in college, he shifted to marketing, maintaining an interest in web development, and eventually became the head of digital marketing and e-commerce for a jewelry company that launched several businesses. “I’ve always had my own businesses where I’ve had to learn how to build websites, learn how to do the marketing, learn about SEO, so I’ve always been on that side of things,” Elliott told AFROTECH™. “I’ve also been in music, so like engineering, technical side, and music has always been parallel in my life.” For 10 years, Elliott worked as a full-time DJ, touring globally, until the pandemic hit. At what felt like the height of his career, he no...
Black-woman-owned Prismm has secured significant funding to help families in times of crisis. Prismm Prismm is a transaction-enabled digital vault. It stores critical records that become essential during an emergency. Users can upload documents, property and asset information, and financial accounts. They can also add beneficiaries, trusted persons, lawyers, executors, or advisors as connections, granting them view-only, view-and-modify, or no access across all categories, according to the company’s website. All information stored on Prismm is encrypted using HTTPS and kept in a digital vault that can be decrypted only with an authorized user account and the correct account key. Prismm intends to protect deposits for financial institutions and automate the inheritance transfer process, which is timely given that $84.4 trillion in wealth is projected to be transferred to Millennial and Gen X heirs by 2045, according to financial services organization, Cerulli Associates. Inception...
Nigerian industrialist Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, has announced plans to invest at least $1 billion in Zimbabwe to develop large-scale projects in cement production, power generation, and fuel infrastructure. The announcement followed his meeting with Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa in the capital of Harare, Reuters reports. According to Reuters, the Dangote Group’s planned investment includes a cement plant, a power generation facility, and a fuel pipeline. Business Insider Africa adds that the initiative represents one of Zimbabwe’s most significant private-sector commitments in recent years. Dangote said the timing reflects improvements in Zimbabwe’s economic environment under Mnangagwa’s administration. “Mnangagwa has turned the economy around,” he said, per the outlet. “That really gave us the confidence that this is the right time for us to come and invest.” This is not Dangote’s first attempt to establish operations in the country. In 2015, Dangote Cement...