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The tech startup community in Detroit will be receiving a boost! Detroit Startup Fund According to a news release, Mayor Mike Duggan, Detroit Economic Growth Corporation (DEGC) officials, City Council President Mary Sheffield, and additional leaders gathered at New Lab at Michigan Central to announce the launch of the Detroit Startup Fund. This $700,000 initiative will award grants to various tech startups in Detroit. “This fund isn’t just about money. It’s about validation and creating pathways for startups that traditional funding sources often overlooked,” Black Tech Saturdays Co-Founder Johnnie Turnage said in the news release. “Detroit and Michigan have incredible talent, but we’ve often lacked the early-stage support that helps startups create jobs. This fund is a monumental step in helping change that.” The first two rounds of recipients will be awarded over the next year, totaling 26 grants — including 20 seed grants of $15,000 each and six scale grants of $50,000 each. The...
Slauson & Co. serves as a bridge between Silicon Valley and entrepreneurs seeking investors. Based in Los Angeles, this venture capital firm takes pride in investing in “exceptional entrepreneurs” who historically have been excluded, as mentioned on the “Black Tech Green Money” podcast hosted by AFROTECH™ Brand Manager Will Lucas. Its founders, Ajay Relan and Austin Clements, established the firm in 2020, after having met 25 years ago off of Slauson Avenue. “When we were building it, we could confidently say we’re the only institutional grade VC firm on Slauson Avenue,” Relan explained on the podcast. “…I think when we think about this geography and what inspires us the most, it really is communities like the ones that exist alongside this corridor in every major city and municipality across the U.S. And we’re built to build a brand that kind of speaks to folks that have historically been excluded and, again, try to find the best and brightest of those that leverage their...
The Gathering Spot has secured strategic funding. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, The Gathering Spot, co-founded by Ryan Wilson and TK Petersen, is a private membership club that has made its way to major cities, including Atlanta, Chicago, New York, Detroit, Charlotte, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and Houston. The Gathering Spot, which prides itself on creating an inviting and collaborative atmosphere, recently rolled out The Retreat, a 60,000-square-foot space that includes a pool, private dining rooms, and cabanas, all while overlooking Atlanta’s skyline. “I wanted our community to have access to the best spaces around,” Wilson said on “The Black Tech Green Money” podcast. “This is world class space that we we can go head-to-head with any favorite rooftop that you have around. It really is that sort of product. But the second thing is that I’ve always known that people connect or want to connect for different reasons.” He added, “If there’s a meaningful community conversation...
Former Division I athlete Nyla Pollard is now innovating in the sports world as a founder. Ballin AI In 2023, Pollard, along with a team of coaches, evaluators, and seasoned AI engineers, launched Ballin AI, a sports technology company that helps high school and college athletes assess their performance and serves as a recruiting resource for coaches, its website mentions. Through the platform, athletes can gain insight into how they are playing as well as how college coaches view their game. Players upload their film, which is then analyzed by a nationally recognized evaluator and scored across key criteria such as defense, shooting, rebounding, scoring, transition, ball handling, and finishing. This platform was a three-year effort led by Ballin AI Chief Development Officer Tenishia Benson, Pollard mentioned on LinkedIn. “Our report gives you an in-depth look at your skills, shooting, defense, and IQ to show you where you’re thriving, but also where you need to improve,” Pollard...
Building on the work she did at six previous funds, Himalaya Rao-Potlapally is now leading one with a focus on Black entrepreneurship. Black Founders Matter Fund Founded in 2019, the Black Founders Matter Fund is an early-stage venture capital firm dedicated to investing in Black and diverse founders building solutions across a variety of sectors, including health, wealth, and economic mobility. The fund gained traction one year later following the racial justice movement caused by the murder of George Floyd. At the time, the Black Founders Matter Fund invested in A Kids Company About (founded by Jelani Memory), which launched a series of books co-authored by experts to help children navigate challenging topics such as autism, trauma, and racism. “It was a really cool business model, a really cool impactful model, and so we had invested in them. And then post-George Floyd’s murder, that book [“A Kids Book About Racism”] actually took off as one of the things that people were...
Three Black women aim to close the racial wealth gap by building the access they want to see, launching culturally grounded, community-owned business schools by and for Detroiters. According to The Michigan Chronicle, Racheal Allen, Ebony Cochran, and Jessie Hayes are determined to build lasting infrastructure for the city’s overlooked entrepreneurs — proving that real business education isn’t just about profits; it’s about economic justice, shared knowledge, and long-term change. Ebony Cochran In June, Cochran — Michigan’s first Black woman to own a Little Caesars franchise, as AFROTECH™ r eported in 2022 — founded the Detroit Wealth Club, a 7,300-square-foot community business school on the city’s east side focused on entrepreneurship, credit literacy, financial planning, and real estate, The Michigan Chronicle reports. Offering educational programming, mentorship, peer accountability, and expert networks, Cochran calls it a movement — one she’s backed with $155,000 of her own...
Tech investor Marc Andreessen, co-founder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, warned that universities will “pay the price” for promoting diversity and allegedly discriminating against supporters of President Donald Trump , according to screenshots of chat messages reviewed by The Washington Post. During a May 3, 2025, WhatsApp chat with White House officials and tech leaders, Andreessen reportedly criticized DEI and immigration policies after being invited by moderator Sriram Krishnan, a White House senior policy adviser on AI, to counter a comment about their impact on economic growth . The outlet also noted that Krishnan had created the group chat at the time he was working at Andreessen’s firm. The group chat, formed in 2023 before Trump’s current term, connects investors and experts with diverse political views interested in open AI development. In addition to Andreessen and Krishnan, members include White House AI adviser Dean Ball, Meta’s chief AI scientist Yann...
New funding has been raised to improve intercity travel across Africa. BuuPass Founded in 2017, BuuPass markets itself as a digital ticketing platform for bus, train, and flight purchases, its website mentions. Its inception was sparked during the 2016 Hult Prize Challenge, a global student competition that asked students that year to create something that would “better connect people to goods, services, and resources.” For company co-founders Sonia Kabra and Wyclife Omondi, this equated to making transportation more efficient in Kenya. “We’re building the infrastructure that makes modern travel work across Africa. Every new route, every operator, every integration strengthens the network,” said Sonia Kabra, co-CEO of BuuPass, according to Techcabal. The platform requires four simple steps for users, such as entering their travel dates, after which they will be shown various travel routes and pricing, per its website. Once the user selects an ideal route, they can book directly on...
Bowie State University, Maryland’s first Historically Black College and University (HBCU) , has received new funding to increase the number of nurse educators in the state. According to a school news release, the university has been awarded a $2.2 million grant from the Maryland Department of Nursing, administered through the Maryland Higher Education Commission, marking the department’s largest grant to date. The funding will be used to support 20 doctoral faculty members in its Ph.D. program over four years with the overarching goal of advancing the nursing workforce by bolstering nurse educators statewide. Bowie State University serves over 6,100 students, according to the school’s LinkedIn. It offers 29 undergraduate majors, 21 master’s degree programs, 16 specialty certificates and three doctoral programs with focus areas such as science, technology, business, education and related disciplines, its website states. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported there will be 193,100...
Akon’s $6 billion plan for a real-life Wakanda on Senegal’s Atlantic Coast “no longer exists,” said Serigne Mamadou Mboup, head of Sapco-Senegal, the state agency overseeing coastal and tourism development. The country has reclaimed most of the land allocated for “Akon City” after the Senegalese-American singer missed payments, according to Bloomberg. As Senegal faces a debt crisis following a state audit under former President Macky Sall, the government will move forward with a scaled-down, privately funded $1.2 billion tourism development featuring hotels, apartments, a marina, and a promenade, the outlet reported. “May this resort serve as a model for success in Senegal, a hub for tourism and a source of economic opportunity,” Mayor Alpha Samb said at a ceremony, according to Bloomberg. In 2020, Senegal granted Akon 136 acres of land for a 10-year project to transform the farming village of Mbodiène into a solar-powered city that would run on the singer’s cryptocurrency and...
A woman-owned trading finance platform is now positioned to scale its footprint in Africa. Liquify Established in 2023 by Nadya Yaremenko and Alberta Asafo-Asamoah, the Ghanaian company is the “f irst fully digital trade finance platform on the continent,” its website mentions. It exists to connect small and medium-sized enterprises in Africa with capital markets across the globe. The Condia reports that the platform allows exporters to turn unpaid invoices into cash in the same day while investors can tap into a high-yielding asset class with the added perks of short maturities and low market correlation. What’s more, Liquify has integrated AI into its due diligence process to create more competitive rates for exporters selling to investment-grade buyers along with lower operational costs. “We built Liquify to unlock the $120 billion trade-finance gap holding back Africa’s most dynamic SMEs,” Yaremenko (CEO) said, according to The Condia. $1.5M Raise Liquify has already financed $4...
Del Monte Foods has announced that it has filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy as part of a strategic effort to restructure its balance sheet and pursue a potential sale, according to a news release. “This is a strategic step forward for Del Monte Foods,” President and CEO Greg Longstreet said. “After a thorough evaluation of all available options, we determined a court-supervised sale process is the most effective way to accelerate our turnaround and create a stronger and enduring Del Monte Foods. With an improved capital structure, enhanced financial position, and new ownership, we will be better positioned for long-term success.” The 139-year-old food company, based in Walnut Creek, CA, is one of the largest producers and distributors of branded packaged goods in the U.S., with brands including Del Monte, Contadina, Kitchen Basics, College Inn, JOYBA, and S&W. Del Monte has secured $912.5 million in financing from existing lenders, including $165 million in new funding, to...
It’s official! Detroit will have its own WNBA team, backed by familiar and notable names. NBA legends Grant Hill and Chris Webber are minority team owners of the new WNBA team. As AFROTECH™ reported, Hill and Webber joined a bid in January 2025, led by Tom Gores, the owner of the Detroit Pistons, to secure a stake in bringing a WNBA team to Detroit. Both Webber and Hill had once played in the city, representing the NBA. Now, halfway through the year, the group — which also includes football quarterback Jared Goff — has much to celebrate, as their bid for a WNBA team has been approved. The team is set to launch and begin competing by 2029, with Little Caesars Arena as its home base and a new practice facility in development, according to CBS News. “This is a huge win for Detroit and the WNBA,” Gores said, per the outlet. “Today marks the long-hoped-for return of the WNBA to a city with deep basketball roots and a championship tradition.” He added, “Detroit played a key role in the...
As college athletes begin profiting earlier in their careers, they’re also making smarter decisions sooner. Many college athletes have been able to directly profit from their name, image, and likeness (NIL) after NCAA members approved an interim policy in 2021. All three NCAA divisions suspended NIL restrictions for incoming and current student-athletes, AFROTECH™ reported; this includes VJ Edgecombe, a 2025 NBA first-round draft pick, who earned $1.4 million in NIL deals thanks to partnerships with Panini America and PSD Underwear. The top college basketball earner is AJ Dybantsa, who has a $4.1 million NIL valuation while representing the Brigham Young University (BYU) Cougars, AFROTECH™ previously reported. College athletes aren’t just pocketing earnings for short-term gain; they’re thinking long-term and making strategic financial moves well before going pro. Quarterbacks LaNorris Sellers (University of South Carolina) and Kevin Jennings (Southern Methodist University) recently...
This self-taught programmer has secured funding for his newly established startup. According to TechCrunch, Bereket Engida had an idea while living in Ethiopia to create a startup that would resolve issues he experienced around authentication. As a programmer, he created a platform that helped developers observe user behavior on their websites while he was working at remote software jobs. This took him down a new rabbit hole after he noticed frequent issues around authentication. He also did not have great faith in some of the tools that already existed to handle the process, which prompted him to take matters into his own hands. “I remember needing an organization feature. It’s a very common use case for most SaaS applications, but it wasn’t available from these providers,” Engida told TechCrunch. “So I had to build it from scratch. It took me about two weeks, and I remember thinking, ‘This is crazy; there has to be a better way to solve this.’” Better Auth This idea eventually...
