š”Resources for Black & minoritised founders
Founders Factory Startup Bulletin #17
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āTime for action, not words.ā Thus reads the tagline of Black History Month, celebrated annually over the month of October. Itās an opportunity to both recognise the struggles and celebrate the achievements of Black people around the world.Ā
To mark this Black History Month, weāre underlining our commitment to āpower founders to go further, fasterāāwith the emphasis on all founders. Weāve compiled this bank of resources, from VCs to networks and communities, in the hope of supporting and empowering one of the most underrepresented groups in tech.Ā
Essential resources for Black & minoritised founders/talentĀ
š°Investment
Founded by entrepreneurs Cyril Lutterodt and Karl Lokko, Black Seed was created to bridge the funding, knowledge, and network gap faced by Black entrepreneurs, and to ensure VC funding reaches Black founders when they most need it so they can grow amazing businesses. Adopting a dual approach as a seed fund program and community
Black-led Ā£20m pre-seed and seed fund for the ā1% of the 1%ā diverse founders. Will invest between Ā£250k to Ā£1m, backing up to 40 companies with 40% allocated for follow-on investment. Led by brothers Rodney & Edwin Appiah and Wilfred Fianko. Read more about them here
Double bottom line venture capital company, founded to support underrepresented entrepreneurs across Europe. Portfolio includes Marshmallow, the UKās second black-founded unicorn.Ā
Initiative by Google for Startups. $4m fund to invest $100k (and up to $200k in Google Cloud credits) in 40 Black-led businesses
Pre-seed and seed investor for overlooked founders and markets, cheque size between Ā£250k - 500k. Driven by 100+ Ada scouts, who are immersed in different communities identifying opportunities and founders in each
Early stage (seed to Series B) investor for women, underrepresented founders (particularly of African descent) and underserved POC markets. Already invested $41m across 36 companies
Originally based in the US, Backstage invests in companies led by underestimated founders, including women, people of colour, and LGBTQ+ founders
Tackling the pervasive misunderstanding of minoritised founders by high street banks, Lendoe provides debt funding to these businesses
A Ā£250k fund for Black creators and business owners, awarding influencer marketing campaigns to businesses worth up to Ā£5k.
š¤ Communities & organisations
A mentoring programme for Black founders (also have a mentoring programme for career professionals). Offer access to social capital (network of founders, industry leaders, and technical experts), funding (offer their own grants of Ā£10k to high potential founders, as well as connections to VCs), and workshops.Ā
Started as an informal Whatsapp community for Black founders, 10x10 now stretches across the ecosystem to cover investors, angels, data collection, etc. Led by investor Andy Davis.
A free coding school looking at increasing DEI across the tech community by getting more minoritised groups the training they need for technical roles.Ā
Organisation that supports, promotes, represents and encourages the continued growth of diverse innovators and tech innovation across the UK. Services include a content platform, jobs board, and an innovation hub mapping diverse-led innovators and digital businesses across the UK.
Non-profit organisation aiming to increase diversity in European tech. Their Rise Accelerator programme was the first accelerator program for underrepresented founders, offering content, office hours with leading VC firms, and a free online course. Also offers programmes for students and professionals.Ā
Community and resources aiming to increase representation in tech. They host events, run innovation labs, as well as providing training in coding, product, prototyping, pitching, and other useful skills for founders.Ā
Community for Black women, aimed at helping women to strengthen their personal brand to increase their impact and income. Run events and talks at prominent tech companies
šReading/resources
The Black Reportāpublished in 2020 by 10x10, the first qualitative report on Black startup founders in the UK
The Conversation And The Data: A Look At Funding To Black Founders (Crunchbase)
š Events
Black Tech Fest (October 11th-13th)āEuropeās premier event celebrating inclusion and equity. Tickets are free, and speakers include Steven Bartlett, Anton Ferdinand, Michelle Williams, and Timothy Armoo
BYP Network Leadership Conference (October 6th-7th)āconference for Black professionals, including 60+ speakers, networking events, and a jobs fair
Have we missed anything? Please comment below or email simon.lovick@foundersfactory.co and weāll aim to keep this updated.
š£ Five Black tech leaders to follow on Twitter
Mark Martin (@urban_teacher)āteacher & founder of UK Black Tech, received an MBE in 2019 for his dedication to getting more Black people into techĀ Ā
Yvonne Bajela (@YvonneBajela)āpartner at LocalGlobe and Latitude, founding member at Impact XĀ Ā Ā
Timothy Armoo (@TimArmoo)āfounder of GenZ social media & influencer marketing agency Fanbytes, recently sold to Brainlabs; Founders Forum rising star of 2021
Monique Woodard (@MoniqueWoodard)āfounding partner at Cake Ventures, previously at 500 Global & LightspeedĀ
Andy Davis (@MrAndyDavis)āco-founder of 10x10, previously venture partner at Backstage, serial entrepreneurĀ Ā
šøĀ News from the Founders Factory portfolio
š©» Scan.com raised Ā£2.2 million in funding to build out their booking infrastructure for diagnostic scans. Investments came from Triple Point Ventures, StartUp Health, Plug and Play Ventures
š® Nominations for the European Metaverse Awards: NFT valuation platform & Venture Studio business Nabu was recognised in two categoriesāāMost Exciting Startupā and āTop Consumer Hardware or Interfaceā; we were also nominated in the āTop VC/Accelerator/Incubatorā category
āļø LuckyTrip launched a crowdfunding campaign on Crowdcube, raising just over Ā£1m (524% of their initial Ā£200k target) to build out their personalised holiday booking platform
See you next month š
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