year ago this month, The Stack published a list of Black Women Founders who were all about to dive head first into their next funding round. 12 months on, we decided to check back in with those same women, to see if they secured investment, and more widely, to talk to them about how their business has evolved in the past year.
Not all from the original list returned to give us an update. However, 10 of them did, and each has seen huge developments to their businesses - whether they secured funding or not. Those who didn’t may have pivoted their company’s trajectory in some way, whilst some are even exploring new career pathways altogether.
That being said, some of the women who partook have grown their businesses exponentially. Simi Lindgren of Yuty for example, in September became the 10th Black female founder to gain VC backing - raising £500k in pre-seed funding.
In November last year, Mariam Jimoh (featured below), raised £3.4 million for her grocery delivery service, Oja. Rachael Twumasi-Corson and Joycelyn Mate of Afrocenchix, went on to secure £1.2 million in funding in the months following our last shoot, whilst media company founded by Tobi Oredein, Black Ballad went on to raise £335,000.
Over the past 12 months, we have heard success story after success story from our Stack World members. From securing investment to making your first hire; from finding a new business partner at one of our meetups, to hearing one piece of advice that changed your entire strategy; success comes in many variations within our community and it’s our aim to support you no matter what stage of your career you’re at - particularly in the face of such bleak statistics for women.
At the end of last year, it was reported that only 0.02% of VC funding in the UK has gone to Black female founders in a decade. During this decade, only 10 Black female founders received VC funding.
Despite these odds, young Black women are at the helm of some of the UK’s most exciting new businesses. In the US last year, funding to Black startup founders quadrupled - however, though funding went up to a total of $1.8 billion (from $0.6 billion), this figure still only makes up 1.2% of the total venture capital invested in US startups.
Since April last year, the women featured in our previous photoshoot have raised over £7 million collectively. Below, we catch up with them to find out how their businesses have evolved, the biggest challenges they’ve faced and what their next steps will be.
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