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Atlanta-based social media startup Fanbase has reached a significant fundraising milestone — surpassing $12.7 million in its ongoing $17 million equity crowdfunding campaign, according to an Instagram post by founder and music industry executive Isaac Hayes III. Marking a shift in the broader tech landscape , Fanbase is bypassing traditional venture capital and turning everyday people into investors — offering the public a chance to own a piece of the platform for as little as $3.99. After reaching its $10 million equity crowdfunding goal in 2024 — a historic achievement that reportedly made Hayes the first Black man to raise this amount in a seed round via StartEngine under Regulation Crowdfunding — Fanbase launched this new $17 million Reg A equity crowdfunding campaign, as AFROTECH™ previously reported. “We have a plan, and we’re going to be able to scale and build the business in real time without having to stop and start and stop and start,” Hayes told AFROTECH™ Brand Manager...
Culture Wireless is on a mission to bring affordable internet, better coverage, and community ownership to places that need it most. When the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) rescinded millions in federal broadband funds, it threatened to leave Georgia’s underserved communities further behind, according to The Current. For Culture Wireless, a Black-owned internet provider co-founded by William “Bam” Sparks (chief marketing officer), the impact was deeply personal. “Personally, it affects me because it hinders people in my community from having access,” Sparks told AFROTECH™ in an interview. “The government doesn’t understand how deeply it impacts certain neighborhoods, especially on the west side of Atlanta, where there’s a digital red line and limited access to basic tools.” For Sparks, the funding cuts weren’t just setbacks — they sparked a renewed drive to build solutions beyond traditional telecom and government efforts. Culture Wireless was created to close this...
Kyrie Irving, Dallas Mavericks point guard, has donated to support the construction of a center that will educate the youth. There is an active GoFundMe that was launched to commemorate the legacy of Tamir Rice, A 12-year-old Black boy who was shot and killed by Timothy Loehmann, a white police officer, in 2014 at the Cudell Park Recreation Center in Cleveland. The child had been playing with a “toy black airsoft pistol with a removable magazine” at the time, a news release reports. A Center In His Legacy Samira Rice, Tamir’s mother, has made the GoFundMe to raise funds in support of a new center in his honor to empower the youth through arts and education, notes Complex. She’s asking for $23 donations to commemorate what would have been Tamir’s 23rd birthday. The project has a $110,000 target and has already raised $92,717 (at the time of this writing). With over 1,000 people contributing, Irving made a significant donation towards the project, committing $50,000. “I miss my son so...
New beginnings are on the horizon for Kevin Ford. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, Ford worked at Burger King and had never missed a day of work for 27 years. The company awarded his years of service with a goodie bag that included a movie ticket, candy, a Starbucks cup, a lanyard, two pens, and two keychains. However, when a video of him receiving his gift went viral, social media users believed that was not enough to reflect Ford’s years of dedication. So, supporters started contributing to a GoFundMe campaign that one of his daughters had created to help him afford a travel ticket to visit family. The campaign had reached more than $212,000 by June 2022. “I just can’t believe this. Thank you, thank you, everybody,” he expressed at the time during a “TODAY” interview with his family. “I just want to tell everybody out there, ‘Thank you for every cent.’ Just the thought of watching the video and just having a reason to smile. I want to thank everybody.” He continued: “There’s been...
Back in 2018, Femi Masha and Jeff Osuji founded Eventnoire to create an efficient way for people to be aware of events created by the Black community, which initially tended to promote its events through their own tactics. In 2021, Eventnoire was named the inaugural winner of the Mountain Dew Real Change Opportunity Fund Pitch Competition, which Blavity CEO and Founder Morgan DeBaun was one of the judges for, as previously reported by AfroTech. Now, the management technology platform has hit a new mark that aims to take its solution-based mission to new heights in the $94 billion global ticketing industry.
Imagine being in an audience and waiting to hear from your favorite speakers. The house lights go dim, the spotlight cranks up and from the silence emerges the sounds from “This is Me,” the inspirational and audacious track from the 2017 film, “The Greatest Showman.” This setup is the dream of the COO and co-founder of StartupStarter, Lorel Scott. Scott has unapologetically busted into the business sector to change the narrative around business education and level the playing field for people of color seeking to advance their businesses. Proudly representing the intersectionality of being a Black gay man, Scott understands the nuances and challenges that exist for business leaders of historically underrepresented communities. This is where StartupStarter enters the chat.
As the world continues to grapple with the effects of the pandemic, this organization is committed to empowering and uplifting Black communities through financial relief and support for those in need. Justin Shaw built Black Money Builder from the ground up as a way to support his community and it ended up being equally beneficial to him as he worked to overcome his own challenges. “In August 2019, I was diagnosed with stage four throat cancer and I was devastated by that news,” the Black Money Builder founder shared in an interview with AfroTech. “Going through chemotherapy and radiation treatment, I started to get the bill and quickly realized that the financial burden that the disease was going to be too much for me to handle by myself.” From there, Shaw’s wife started a crowdfunding campaign that really allowed family and friends to help through generosity. As he continued treatments, Shaw wanted to have the same effect on others as he received. After his journey, Justin Shaw...
After years of investing on his own, Nigerian angel investor Olumide Soyombo is launching his own venture to support African-based startup companies. According to TechCrunch, Soyombo — a known high profile angel investor in Nigerian tech and African startups — today has announced the launch of Voltron Capital — a Pan-African venture capital firm co-founded with Abe Choi — which will invest in pre-seed and early-stage companies in Africa. The outlet also reports that Soyombo’s goal for the new firm — which aims to start off with 30 startup investments — is to ultimately “address the severe lack of access to early-stage funding for African tech companies.” The investment sizes will range from $20,000 to $100,000 and focus on startups based in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and North Africa. Soyombo is recognized as a prominent and influential figure in Nigeria’s tech ecosystem, as he has access to almost any important deals happening in the market on account of his respected reputation....
These entrepreneurs are reaping all the benefits from having turned down an offer during an appearance on “Shark Tank.” Kim and Tim Lewis are the founders of CurlMix, a haircare line geared toward all textures of our tresses! AfroTech previously reported that while on “Shark Tank” the couple turned down a $400,000 offer. Now they’re slated to make history in the equity crowdfunding space having already raised over $3.6 million within 30 days of launching their campaign, per Black Enterprise. To date over 6,000 investors have tapped into their campaign powered by Wefunder. “Anytime you have a community backing you and they are hype about [your brand], what you are doing will be successful,” said Tim during an interview with Black Enterprise. “I don’t have rich people [involved] who put in half a million dollars. About 90% of our investors have contributed less than $1,000 so it really is the people that are driving this campaign.” In just four hours of launching the campaign, the...
Black-owned parent company Listener Brands — which is home to award-winning textured hair care brands CurlMix and 4C ONLY — has just announced the launch of its new equity crowdfunding campaign for CurlMix to aid consumers in unlocking their chance to achieve generational wealth. The brand shares that the campaign aims to empower consumers to invest in the brands they already shop with and also contribute to Listener Brands’ future growth as they make noise in the beauty and wellness spaces. “Many of us spend years supporting companies with our hard-earned dollars, but we see nothing for it when the brand eventually sells, transferring the wealth outside of our community,” Listener Brands CEO and Co-Founder, Kim Lewis, shares in a press statement. “Our goal is to create opportunities for our community to increase their wealth. Our vision is to change the narrative on what ownership looks like. We aim to become the first Black-owned publicly traded beauty conglomerate.” As told to...
There’s a new platform on the market that’s putting the value power back in creative freelancers’ hands. Entrepreneur Leah Hill — f ounder of Kindred Media & Entertainment — has announced the launch of a new app dedicated to connecting creatives with job opportunities and transforming them into investors. Kinfolk App is a first-of-its-kind platform that’s offering these creatives a unique opportunity to both invest and generate funds. By eliminating the pressure of networking between creatives and project leads, Kinfolk App is creating a two-sided solution to help simplify the marketplace. “Creating an app like Kinfolk was sparked out of personal necessity. There have been numerous times it seemed impossible to fill a role for a team I was working on. In fact, finding a mobile app developer to work with on Kinfolk proved to be a much harder task than I anticipated,” Hill shared. “Also, whenever I went on social media I was seeing posts searching for creatives with certain skill...
Determined, disruptive, and optimistic are three words that Issac Hayes III — founder of social networking app Fanbase — says define who he is. “I’ve been an entrepreneur my entire life,” Hayes said. “I think to step into the space of entrepreneurship, you’ve got to be determined, you’ve got to have faith and optimism, and you’ve got to be disruptive because you’re going against the grain.” Hayes has always been the kid down to make a buck. From mowing lawns to cleaning pools, he has always been an enterprising young person. He was raised by his parents to earn his own money and continues to go down the same path throughout his journey as an entrepreneur. He may be known as the son and heir to his soul icon father’s — the late Isaac Hayes Jr. — estate. However, he first began his multi-ventured 21-year career as a songwriter-producer before ultimately transitioning into scoring music for movies and television networks. Now he’s on a new path as a CEO and first-time founder of tech...
Gaining capital for startup companies is a challenge in itself, but recently there’s been an outpour of initiatives and programs being created to provide more funding for minority entrepreneurs. Many women and minorities are almost always left out of lucrative venture capitalist funding, and according to Crunchbase , women-founded startups only receive about 9 percent of investments. To help more women entrepreneurs gain financial independence, Tracy Garley — founding partner and CEO of GoFundHer — launched a new crowdfunding platform committed to helping women receive the financial and community support they need, Black Enterprise reports . Photo credit: Instagram / @_gofundher With a goal in mind to advocate for women’s dream ventures, the Liberian-born entrepreneur partnered with crowdfunding owner and founding partner Roger Mensah to bring her vision to life. “I developed the crowdfunding website and social club as sister companies embracing the causes of girls and women,”...
Pierre Laguerre, founder of Fleeting, a platform designed to connect companies with qualified and reliable CDL drivers, has made history as the first Black man to raise the $1.07 million maximum in all regulation crowdfunding platforms. According to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) , a company is permitted to raise a maximum amount of $1,070,000 through crowdfunding offerings during a period of 12 months and Laguerre’s Fleet managed to do just that. Republic , an online crowdfunding platform announced the news of Fleet’s historic accomplishment via Twitter. HISTORY ✊🏾 FIRST Black man to raise the $1.07m max in all Reg CF platforms. Congrats @PierreLaguerre5 , @chamillionaire , @e40 , @thesharkdaymond , @convoz and all of you for making this possible! #blackexcellence https://t.co/6doI7d3vXZ — Republic 🌎 (@joinrepublic) July 1, 2020 Fleeting shares were open to investors via Republic, where it amassed funds from nearly 5,000 investors, some of which took to their Twitter...
Launching a startup requires money, and no matter how much you’ve saved, you’re probably going to need more. In today’s startup market, seeking venture capital (VC) funding seems like the best way to raise money especially because VC firms often offer large checks and access to valuable resources that startups need. However, VC funding comes with strings. Investors will take equity from your business in exchange for that big fat check, and you might lose operational control over your company. However, there’s some good news; VC funding may not be your only option. Crowdfunding is a great way to raise large quantities of cash without sacrificing equity. However, not all crowdfunding campaigns are successful. Here are some commonalities among some of the most successful crowdfunding campaigns: Planning They say luck is where preparation meets opportunity. Technically you could throw up a campaign with a few lines and a picture and hope for the best. However, the most successful...