The Stickiest, Most Addictive, Most Engaging, and Fastest-Growing Social Apps; How Foundations Fail Diverse Fund Managers; Rihanna is seeking $100 million to scale Savage X Fenty.
A weekly newsletter for Black and Brown women highlighting entrepreneurship and venture capital in the tech ecosystem.
Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Hanukkah, Festivus For The Rest Of Us!
Thank you all for an amazing year! We launched this newsletter eight months ago and have produced 32 issues in 2020! We hope that we have lived up to your expectations and have delivered relevant news, events, and funding opportunities helpful to founders, operators and investors alike. This is going to be our last issue of 2020. We’re going to use these next few weeks to take a break, reconnect with family and friends, and recalibrate for the new year. We’ll have some exciting news and parnterships to announce next month.
We’ll see you back in your inbox January 17, 2021.
Apple launches Fitness+. StockX (originally launched as a marketplace for sneakers) raised a $275M Series E, valuing the retailer at $2.8B. Bumble has filed confidentially for a February IPO. Walmart will start fully driverless deliveries in 2021. Paris was fined for putting too many women in charge. The city violated a law mandating new senior civil servant appointments be at least 40% men and 40% women. Coinbase, which runs a cryptocurrency exchange, filed to go public.
INSIGHTS
How Foundations Fail Diverse Fund Managers and How to Fix It
-Tracy Gray & Emilie Cortes / Stanford Social Innovation Review
The Stickiest, Most Addictive, Most Engaging, and Fastest-Growing Social Apps—and How to Measure Them
-Bennett Carroccio / Andreessen Horowitz
EBAN - European Business Angels Network Impact Investing Report
-European Business Angels Network
Operator-Investors: The Future of Venture Capital
-Pathway Ventures
Serena Williams: Silicon Valley is wrong about Black women entrepreneurs
-Serena Williams
OPPORTUNITIES, FUNDING & COMPETITIONS
Nex Cubed launches HBCU Founder's Program for Founders in Digital Health, FinTech, PropTech, and EdTech. 8-week program + $10K. Apply by February 1, 2021.
Women In Sports Tech (WiST) Fellowship program awards $5,000 grants, plus up to $2,500 for travel and housing, to female college and grad students for summer internships in the sports tech business. Apply by February 28, 2021.
SISTA's Online Inclusive Hours: Fireside Chat with Inspiring Business Women followed by 1-1 sessions with FDJ & Serena teams. January 7, 2021.
Capital Factory 3rd $100,000 Investment Challenge at the Black in Tech Summit. Any tech or consumer startup with a black founder can apply by January 22, 2021.
UPCOMING (VIRTUAL) EVENTS
This is Axios Events 2020-Axios Today Host Niala Boodhoo and Business Editor Dan Primack host a year-end show, highlighting some of their most newsworthy guests in 2020. December 21, 2020.
Africa Next E-Pitch Session-a showcase of seven of the most promising African start-ups raising $1- $10 million. This initiative was launched by Bpifrance and Digital Africa. January 12, 2021.
MeetFounders is organizing their next (FULLY VIRTUAL) investment event with 30 Venture Capital panelists, 15 startups pitching for investment, and 150+ entrepreneurs. January 25-26, 2021.
Investment & Inclusion Series: Amplifying Funders Of Color, by The Capital Network and VC Inclusion Lab. January 26, 2021.
Capital Factory 3rd Annual Black In Tech Summit, February 16, 2021.
ON OUR RADAR
The Best TikToks of 2020.
Black staff at Lloyds are paid 20% less than their peers, bank reveals.
Is American Dietetics a White-Bread World?
These 3 Skincare Brands Were Created Specifically With Black Skin In Mind – And They’re Changing The Beauty Landscape.
PEOPLE / ANNOUNCEMENTS
Toyin Ajayi, Co-founder of City Block Health, a health startup for low income patients, raised a $160M Series C, reaching a $1 billion valuation.
Netflix adds Zimbabwean billionaire Strive Masiyiwa to its board.
Goldman Sachs’ Launch With GS Announces Investment in MaC Venture Capital I.
Liz Jenkins, CFO of Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine media company, appointed to Snap board of directors.
Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex, makes her debut as a startup investor in Clvr Brands, an instant oat milk latte company.
Rihanna is seeking $100 million to scale her lingerie business Savage X Fenty.
Metafy raises $3M in Series Seed Funding.
Realtime Raises $4M Seed Round led by Alexis Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six.
A heartfelt thank you for reading and see you next week!
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