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venture capital - Page 5

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Black Owned Human Resources Platform, Bambee, Raises $30 Million

Black Owned Human Resources

Bambee, a company that makes Human Resources affordable for small to medium-sized businesses has announced a $30 million dollar Series C round, bringing its total funding to $65 million.

“Growing up in a family that ran a small business, I have a high level of empathy for small businesses in general,” said Jones, who founded Bambee in 2016. “Throughout my career working for different places, I noticed that a lot of small-business owners lacked infrastructure and were left to their own devices to solve complex problems, particularly those relating to employment. I’ve known for a long time about the aches and pains that exist in small businesses and wanted to offer them solutions they previously didn’t have access to.”

Bambee has been at the forefront of solving HR problems for small businesses since its inception. Bambee puts their customers HR on autopilot, starting with a dedicated HR manager and smart automation. Bambee helps each company navigate the complex regulatory world of compliance, HR policy, employee relations, and HR strategy — including internal investigations, hires, furloughs, and return to work procedures. The combination of a real HR manager coupled with an intelligent software platform gets Bambee customers to HR compliance, and helps keep them compliant.

The company grew by 100% in 2021 and is on track to double again in 2022. The company has nearly 10,000 active subscribers.

In this latest round, SoftBank joined QED, leader of both Series B and C rounds, and AlphaEdison, who led the Series A round. Key investments were also made by Mucker Capital, Ken Chenault (chairman and managing director, General Catalyst; and former CEO and chairman of American Express), Damian Maldonado (CEO and founder at American Financing and American Home Agent), and Gaingels (the LGBTQIA+/Allies investment syndicate).

With this new investment, Bambee plans to hire an additional 150 employees this year and expand its operations in Nashville, Tennessee.

Tony O. Lawson

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5 mins read

Black Doctor Owned Startup, CancerIQ Raises $14 Million for Early Cancer Detection and Prevention

canceriq

Systemic access barriers have created stark inequality when it comes to preventive cancer care in the United States. For example, Black women are more likely to be diagnosed with advanced stages of breast cancer and 41% more likely to die of the disease than white women.

These issues are compounded by the 9.5 million screenings missed during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to an increase in late-stage cancer diagnoses that are more costly and have a greater impact on quality of life and outcomes than early-stage diagnoses.

Enter CancerIQ, the only cancer-focused precision health platform that empowers healthcare providers to detect cancer earlier and prevent it altogether.

“My core belief is that we can drastically change what it means to have cancer if we make cancer risk assessment more accessible and ensure all patients have access to personalized, risk-based care pathways,” said Feyi Olopade Ayodele, Founder and CEO at Cancer IQ. “CancerIQ is driven by the vision to end cancer as we know it. And it is our mission to accomplish this by connecting broader patient populations and providers to the latest innovations in early detection and prevention. ”

Today the company announced that it closed a $14 million Series B financing round.

The new funding comes one month after a report from the President’s Cancer Panel calling for “urgent and immediate action” to close gaps in cancer screening, risk assessment, and timely follow-up care — particularly among diverse, uninsured, or underinsured, and rural populations.

“The cancer research community has made great strides in cancer prevention and treatment,” said Funmi Olopade, MD, Co-founder and Chief Scientific Advisor of CancerIQ. “But now we must accelerate and scale the clinical pipeline, so a diverse population of patients — those receiving care at academic medical centers and community hospitals alike — can benefit from these advances.” Dr. Olopade served on the National Cancer Advisory Board and is one of the field’s foremost authorities on cancer genetics and precision oncology.

“CancerIQ’s vision is to end cancer as we know it by eliminating health disparities and democratizing access to the latest advances in cancer early detection and prevention,” added Feyi Olopade Ayodele, Co-founder and CEO of CancerIQ. “We started by making genetic testing more accessible and connecting patients to the right preventive services at the right time.

This latest round of funding will help CancerIQ reach more patients and connect to more innovations that promise to transform cancer from a deadly disease to a manageable condition.”

CancerIQ’s precision health platform, which is being used by clinicians at more than 180 locations across the country, makes it easy to determine a patient’s individual risk of cancer based on family history, genetics, behavior, and other factors, and then connect them to the corresponding care pathways.

Those pathways range from MRIs, prophylactic surgeries, and vaccinations to at-home screening kits, multi-cancer early detection (MCED) tests, lifestyle interventions and other services such as clinical trials, educational materials, and social resources.

The funding round was co-led by Merck Global Health Innovation Fund (Merck GHI) and Amgen Ventures. McKesson Ventures, OSF Ventures (the investment arm of OSF HealthCare, a current CancerIQ customer), as well as CancerIQ’s Series A lead investor, HealthX Ventures, also participated in the Series B round.

The new funding will help CancerIQ grow its precision health platform, strengthen its partnership ecosystem, and expand its health system network. Following a recent series of key executive hires, the company also plans to hire 50 team members to meet the rising demand for more efficient and innovative cancer prevention services.

Check out their open positions here.

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2 mins read

Flutterwave Triples Valuation to $3 Billion, becoming the Highest Valued African Startup

Flutterwave

African fintech Flutterwave has raised $250 million in a Series D round that tripled the company’s valuation to over $3 billion in only twelve months.

Flutterwave has grown significantly since Shoppe Black interviewed founder and CEO,  “GB “Agboola, last year.

“We started Flutterwave due to the fragmented nature of payments in Africa— there were multiple ways of making and receiving payments within countries but cross-border payments remained a hassle. This made it difficult for individuals like myself or businesses to make or receive international payments in Africa”, said Agboola.

Today, the company supports international payments for over 34 countries and processes payments across 150 currencies. In September 2021, the number of businesses using Flutterwave was 300,000. Now, 900,000 companies use Flutterwave to receive money from their customers.

fluttervwave
Flutterwave Founder and CEO, Olugbenga “GB “Agboola

B Capital Group led the $250 million round, with participation from Alta Park Capital LP, Whale Rock Capital and Lux Capital. Several existing investors who participated in previous rounds also followed this round, including Glynn Capital, Avenir Growth, Tiger Global, Green Visor Capital and Salesforce Ventures.

The company will use the funds to expand through mergers and acquisitions in Africa and the Middle East in the coming months.

Flutterwave currently facilitates cross-border transactions in multiple currencies for Uber, Netflix, and Microsoft on their expansion across Africa.  And, have started talking to many other US-based merchants that have growth ambitions across the continent.

Tony O. Lawson

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2 mins read

Black Owned Credit Building Platform, Esusu Raises $130 Million, now valued at $1 Billion

esusu

In the U.S., credit is your lifeline to the financial system. To date, 45 million Americans lack credit scores, and millions more are marginalized due to their background, race, and zip code.

Esusu is a rent reporting platform that captures rental payment data and reports it to credit bureaus to boost users’ credit scores.

Founded in 2018 by Abbey Wemimo and Samir Goel, Esusu was built to include everyone on the journey from financial identity and stability toward financial wellness that leads to wealth building.

Over the past year, Esusu has experienced monumental growth spurred by industry adoption, new rent reporting regulations, and partnerships with the country’s largest property owners and operators.

Esusu works with over 30% of the largest asset managers and property managers in the nation and helps report rent payments for more than two million rental units across all 50 states in the U.S., up from 1 million units last year.

Today, the 4-year-old company announced that it has raised $130 million in a Series B fundraising round. This investment gives Esusu a valuation of $1 billion, making it one of the very few Black-owned unicorns in the U.S. and globally.

“We started Esusu with the belief that where you come from, the color of your skin, and your financial identity should not determine where you end up in life,” said Wemimo in a statement.

The round was led by Softbank with participation from Jones Feliciano Family Office, Lauder Zinterhofer Family Office, Schusterman Foundation, SoftBank Opportunity Fund, Related Companies, and Wilshire Lane Capital.

Esusu plans to use the funding to triple its employees, “turbocharge growth through product innovation, and build the most comprehensive financial health platform in the market.”

Tony O. Lawson

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3 mins read

This $55 Million Fund Invests Exclusively in Black Owned Healthcare Startups

Black Owned Healthcare Startups

Jumpstart Nova is the first fund that invests exclusively in Black owned healthcare startups in the US.

The fund recently announced that it has raised $55 million from health care investors including Eli Lilly and Company, Cardinal Health, and Atrium Health, oversubscribing its initial $30 million target.

Black Owned Healthcare Startups
Marcus Whitney –  Founder and General Partner of Jumpstart Nova

The fund will invest in companies across health IT, digital health, tech-enabled services, diagnostic devices, biotech, medical device manufacturing, and consumer health and wellness, according to a press release.

Marcus Whitney is the founder and General Partner. He was inspired to create Jumpstart Nova as a solution to a central gap he saw in the marketplace. Jumpstart Nova is the newest in a family of funds managed by JHI, which he co-founded with Vic Gatto in 2015 in Nashville.

”The healthcare venture capital industry has missed out for decades on investing in America’s brilliant Black innovators, and this has been a loss for us all. Jumpstart Nova’s strong start and incredible group of limited partners validate the need to capitalize and support the vital solutions from this untapped talent base,” said Whitney, in a statement.

Jumpstart Nova is working to increase equity in the healthcare venture space by maintaining majority Black owned general partners, growing the number of Black VC limited partners and VC professionals, generating great returns and investing in Black founders and leaders at the forefront of healthcare innovation, the company said.

The fund’s initial portfolio companies are tackling healthcare issues like equitable access to clinical trials, bringing novel cell and gene therapies to market, helping families with autistic children get the therapeutic support they need, and seeking to mitigate the risk of life-threatening food allergy attacks, according to Whitney.

Companies qualifying for consideration for Seed or Series A investment will have at least one Black founder in a C-level position and holding a board seat.

Check sizes will generally range from $250K-$3MM and the fund will often lead rounds, in which cases it will require a board seat. Its investments will mostly be minority investments.

Tony O. Lawson

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2 mins read

Black Owned Plant-Based Hair Extension Brand Raises $1.4 Million

Black Owned Plant-Based

Many Black women and men wear their hair in protective styles such as twists and braids that use hair extensions that are often made from plastic.

According to a 2020 report by Refinery29, synthetic hair is made up of “ultra-fine strands of plastic” and non-biodegradable materials like polyester, acrylic, and PVC that contribute to landfills. Synthetic hair can also cause severe scalp irritation and itchiness on contact.

black Owned Plant-Based
Image credit: Rebundle

This scalp irritation is what inspired Rebundle, a Black owned plant-based hair extension brand, to offer a biodegradable alternative to synthetic braiding hair.  They are the first beauty brand to address both the health and environmental disparities in the hair extensions industry.

Black Owned Plant-Based
Image credit: Rebundle

The St. Louis-based startup is led by co-founder and CEO Imani May and co-founder and chief marketing officer Danielle Washington.

May got the idea for Rebundle after experiencing discomfort from her braids while wearing braids back to back as she grew her hair out.

When the brand officially launched its first product, Braid Better hair, in Jan. 2021, the pre-order inventory sold out within a month, with over 14% of sales coming directly from Instagram. The page also grew from 1,000 followers to now over 14,000.

Black Owned Plant-Based
Image credit: Rebundle

The product is made from naturally extracted banana fiber, which is sourced internationally. The hair can be cut, dyed, and manipulated the same as any other hair. It is also resistant to heat and can be flat ironed.

Yesterday, the Rebundle announced that it has raised $1.4 million in a pre-seed round.

Several investors participated in Rebundle’s financing, including St. Louis startup funder Arch Grants, a nonprofit. Other investors included RareBreed Ventures, M25, Closed Loop Partners’ Ventures Group, Sku’d Ventures, Chicago Early, Big Delta Capital, Precursor Ventures, Evergreen Climate Innovations and Innocreative Capital.

The new investment will be used to plans to add additional team members and establish a new local manufacturing facility.

Tony O. Lawson

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AudioMob, Black Owned Gaming Ad Company Reaches $110 Million Valuation in One Year

audiomob

AudioMob is a Black owned gaming advertisement company created to help developers monetize their games through audio ads.

Their in-game audio advertising format allows gameplay and connects brands with highly engaged audiences. According to AudioMob, their clients see up to a 2000% increase in engagement when compared to banner ads.

AudioMob has been used in marketing campaigns for major artists like Nas and Justin Bieber, as well as brands such as Intel and Jeep.

Nas himself has commented, “It was interesting to witness the music react in a different landscape. It’s a dope medium for artists to connect with the globe.”

audiomob
AudioMob co-founders Christian Facey (left) and Wilfrid Obeng (right). AUDIOMOB

Founded in 2020, the UK-based company recently announced that it has successfully raised $14m for its series A funding, bringing its total valuation to a reported $110 million.

The funding will be used to expand the team in London and Abu Dhabi and develop more experimental audio technology. The company will also continue to file patents in more countries, build out its team and open up opportunities in other regions and markets.

Lead investors Makers Fund and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Additional investors include Sequoia Capital and Google which are known for producing unicorns including Snap and Epic Games alongside some music artists which takes total investment to date $16million.

Christian Facey, CEO at AudioMob told TechCrunch, “We’re thrilled to see investors’ excitement for AudioMob’s vision for long term success and our future. We’re on the precipice of innovating a whole industry with audio and now we’re able to build out our tech and team to ensure we’re disrupting the industry in the right way and ensure we eventually become a future tech industry unicorn.”

Wilfrid Obeng, CTO at AudioMob said, “We understand that consumers don’t want to be interrupted, advertisers want their ads to be heard and game developers want to ensure monetization does not affect retention. And now we have built products which meet all three needs.”

Tony O. Lawson

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2 mins read

Black Owned Trucking Company Grows to $4M in Revenue in three years

black owned trucking

Fleeting is a Black owned trucking and fleet management services company with a vision to create a platform that improves the commercial freight industry by leveraging technology to match truck owners, drivers and shippers and brokers.

black owned trucking
Pierre Laguerre, Founder of Fleeting

In May of 2021, the Brooklyn, NY based company received a seed round investment of $500,000 from Kyrie Irving, NBA superstar and founder of new consulting firm, KAI 11 Consulting, and venture capital firm, Lockstep Ventures.

“I knew Pierre before he launched Fleeting and served as one of his mentors, so it was a no-brainer for me to stand behind him and invest in his company. He is an innovator and has taken great leaps to address the gaps in the trucking industry that have been overlooked for years. In addition, Pierre is using his company to help those ignored in the trucking world, such as women and formerly incarcerated individuals,” said Marcus Glover, co-founder of Lockstep Ventures.

In this interview with Fleeting’s founder, Pierre Laguerre, he shared:

  • How he ended up driving trucks early in his career.
  • What inspired him to start his own logistics company.
  • His thoughts on the current state of the trucking industry and where he sees the industry in the future.
  • Some of the biggest challenges in the trucking industry and how his company addresses them.
  • His motivation behind  helping disadvantaged people including the formerly incarcerated to get a commercial driver’s license (CDL)

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Tony O. Lawson

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7 mins read

Meet The CEO of Flutterwave, Nigeria’s Billion Dollar Startup

flutterwave

Launched in 2016 as a Nigerian and U.S.-based payments company with offices in Lagos and San Francisco, Flutterwave builds payments infrastructure that connects Africa to the global economy.

Flutterwave is also one of only four unicorns ($1 billion+ startups) in Africa. Two other unicorns are located in Nigeria—and one in Egypt.

We caught up with Flutterwave founder and CEO, Olugbenga “GB “Agboola to find out more about his company and its future plans.

flutterwave
Flutterwave Founder and CEO, Olugbenga “GB “Agboola

What inspired you to start Flutterwave?

We started Flutterwave due to the fragmented nature of payments in Africa— there were multiple ways of making and receiving payments within countries but cross-border payments remained a hassle. This made it difficult for individuals like myself or businesses to make or receive international payments in Africa. 

It was easier for me to send and receive money from the UK than to do the same from Lagos to Nairobi. We saw an opportunity to address this problem and worked with a group of passionate Engineers, Bankers, Designers, Builders, and Marketers to build Flutterwave, to simplify payments for endless possibilities.  

Today, we support international payments for over 34 countries and process payments across 150 currencies. We have over 300,000 businesses using our solutions to receive money from their customers and continue on their growth journey. 

During the lockdown, you helped set up digital storefronts for over 20,000 of your clients. Why was it important for you even though e-commerce isn’t part of your core business?

This was our own way of helping our customers cushion the impact of the pandemic. The lockdowns in 2020 meant that businesses that earlier depended on making physical sales were all out of revenue opportunities. We built out this solution to enable them to continue selling while they were at home. 

Flutterwave has over 25,000 businesses across Africa— some selling skincare, beauty products, others selling shoes and fashion items, etc on the Flutterwave Store. It’s interesting to note how small businesses are currently using the solutions and the huge opportunity this has for the future. 

Here are a few ways small businesses are using the solution. This barbecue Business—Smoked Barbecue in a Box offers home delivery with the support of Flutterwave Store. This cocktail company—Big Fish Cocktail offers unique drinks sold over the Flutterwave Store.  

flutterwave

What are some of your plans to offer payment services to US-based clients and companies?

We are excited for the opportunity to offer Flutterwave’s payment infrastructure to US-based clients and companies.  Currently, we are already working with merchants such as Uber, Netflix, and Microsoft on their expansion across Africa.  And, we have started talking to many other US-based merchants that have growth ambitions across the continent.  

We also have several strategic partnerships that will help us expand the services that we can offer to our merchant base and look forward to launching those in the near future for our US merchants.

What are your thoughts on the importance of African Americans being more involved in the African startup scene as founders and/or investors? 

First is the massive economic benefits and opportunities for African Americans to access the widely untapped trillion dollar economic opportunities both in Africa and in the US. By 2030, Africa will have 1.7 billion people and a combined consumer and business spending of 6.7 trillion U.S. dollars (Brookings). The continent is creating a new development path and harnessing the potential of its people and resources. 

Secondly is the socio-economic benefit. The African-American community can play a huge part in the prosperity of the continent by starting up or investing in businesses that will bring socio-economic change and employ more people on the continent. Advancing US-Africa trade, investment, and technology in Africa would unlock massive economic growth and increased prosperity for both regions.

flutterwave
Team Flutterwave

What future plans do you have that involve cryptocurrency?

We support our customers and help them in countries where they are compliant with the regulations. We are excited to explore diverse use cases of our solutions across the world and across various sectors in compliance with regulations guiding such sectors and countries. Our future plans include working with all stakeholders to better understand and use the technology in a way that protects the consumers.      

What advice do you have for those in the Diaspora that are interested in entering the rapidly growing tech startup space in Nigeria?

Just do it! Through skill share, knowledge share, and investments in the tech ecosystem, the African diaspora can help unlock some of the continent’s full potential. The best time to invest in Africa was a few years back.

The second best time is now. The continent is on the fast track in building cutting edge technologies across healthcare, payments, logistics, e-commerce and the market is readily available.

The regulators are also learning fast and catching up with the speedy innovations on the continent. Africa is rich in talent; the diaspora should consider looking inward for talents that can help build, run and scale their businesses. 

 

Tony O. Lawson

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2 mins read

Black Owned Insurtech Startup in UK Hits Billion Dollar Valuation

Black Owned Insurtech

Insurtech is a term that barely existed five years ago. It is used to describe the use of technology to disrupt the insurance industry. Because the global market is expected to reach $60 billion by 2028, companies operating in this space are attracting a lot of investor attention.

One such company is Marshmallow, a Black owned insurtech startup that recently reached a valuation of over $1.25 billion, becoming the newest and one of only two Black owned billion dollar (pound) startups in the UK.

The valuation came after an $85 million funding round, bringing the total amount raised by the company in the last year to more than $100 million.

Founded in 2017, by Oliver Kent-Braham, his twin brother Alexander Kent-Braham, and David Goate, the company aims to modernize the insurance industry by using data to provide more affordable auto insurance to customers who fall outside the typical “good risk” profile. These often include immigrants, expats, and people traveling within the UK.

Marshmallow has expanded its staff by more than 200% in the past year to around 170 people, and also plans to use its funding to hire 400 more over the next two years and to expand overseas and into other types of insurance beyond the auto segment.

“Customers are voting with their feet — and they clearly want a modern insurance offering,” Oliver Kent-Braham, co-founder and chief executive of Marshmallow, said.

Tony O. Lawson

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