Startups

Meet the Black Female Founders from TC Include at TC Sessions: Justice 2021

Comment

On March 3, we’re hosting TC Sessions: Justice 2021, a day-long virtual conference dedicated to examining diversity and inclusion in tech. Tune in to presentations, panel discussions, breakout sessions and interactive Q&As with key tech leaders. Topics range from accessible product design and fighting algorithmic bias to the justice system, workplace organizing and support for underrepresented founders — and that’s just for starters.

Don’t miss your chance to meet some founders currently participating in TechCrunch’s Include program. We partnered with various founder organizations — who in turn nominated promising early-stage startup founders — and collectively provide educational resources and mentorship to help these young founders develop and succeed over the course of the year. This collaborative program also includes prominent VC organizations like Kleiner Perkins, Salesforce Ventures and Initialized Capital to develop lasting mentorships with the TC Include founder cohort.

We joined forces with Black Female Founders, and they nominated an impressive posse of early-stage startup founders. Register for TC Sessions: Justice to meet some of the visionary female founders who are part of the Black Female Founders organization and watch them take part in a live pitch feedback session with TechCrunch during the event.

We’ll be highlighting many more TC Include startups and founder organizations over the coming weeks, so keep checking back. And now, without further ado, behold the TC Include program startups sponsored by Black Female Founders:

  • Five to Nine: Five to Nine is a Black and women-owned software company that enables organizers to track, manage and evaluate their events and programs for impact. Founded by Denise Umubyeyi.
  • MYAVANA: Myavana is a virtual hair care company that provides product recommendations and personalized guidance using AI technology and professional experts. Founded by Candace Mitchell Harris.
  • Go Together, Inc.: Go Together’s Carpool to School is a B2B SaaS platform that’s equitable, makes organizing school transportation convenient for parents and reduces per-student transportation cost for schools/districts. Founded by Kimberly Moore.
  • kweliTV: KweliTV allows you to discover and celebrate critically acclaimed and award-winning Black stories across the globe through curated indie films, documentaries, web series and live experiences. Founded by DeShuna Spencer.
  • Viledge: Viledge connects Black businesses to new fans by curating gift boxes full of dope finds. Friends, co-workers and families can discover and share together in live unboxing experiences. Founded by Zuley Clarke.
  • Civic Eagle: Civic Eagle is a SaaS company that helps organizations gain a strategic edge in advocacy and lobbying by using AI to unlock legislative data insights. Founded by Shawntera Hardy.
  • Unpacking: Unpacking is the No. 1 online learning platform for social impact. We’re disrupting boring, inefficient and outdated diversity training through real talk and interactive gaming. Founded by Kristina Williams.
  • Official Black Wall Street: Official Black Wall Street is a digital platform and app connecting consumers to Black-owned businesses, while giving Black entrepreneurs the resources and exposure needed to thrive. Founded by Mandy Bowman.
  • Go See The City: We drive foot traffic to local restaurants, brands and events by connecting customers to deep-discounted coupons. We then provide consumer analytics to small businesses and municipalities. Founded by Aneshai Smith.

TC Sessions: Justice 2021 takes place virtually on March 3. Register today and join us as we explore diversity, equity and inclusion in tech.

Is your company interested in sponsoring TC Sessions: Justice 2021? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.

More TechCrunch

The French Secretary of State for the Digital Economy as of this year, Marina Ferrari, revealed this year’s laureates during VivaTech week in Paris. According to its promoters, this fifth…

The biggest French startups in 2024 according to the French government

Spotify is notifying customers who purchased its Car Thing product that the devices will stop working after December 9, 2024. The company discontinued the device back in July 2022, but…

Spotify to shut off Car Thing for good, leading users to demand refunds

Elon Musk’s X is preparing to make “likes” private on the social network, in a change that could potentially confuse users over the difference between something they’ve favorited and something…

X should bring back stars, not hide ‘likes’

The FCC has proposed a $6 million fine for the scammer who used voice-cloning tech to impersonate President Biden in a series of illegal robocalls during a New Hampshire primary…

$6M fine for robocaller who used AI to clone Biden’s voice

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Is it…

Tesla lobbies for Elon and Kia taps into the GenAI hype

Crowdaa is an app that allows non-developers to easily create and release apps on the mobile store. 

App developer Crowdaa raises €1.2M and plans a US expansion

Back in 2019, Canva, the wildly successful design tool, introduced what the company was calling an enterprise product, but in reality it was more geared toward teams than fulfilling true…

Canva launches a proper enterprise product — and they mean it this time

TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 isn’t just an event for innovation; it’s a platform where your voice matters. With the Disrupt 2024 Audience Choice Program, you have the power to shape the…

2 days left to vote for Disrupt Audience Choice

The United States Department of Justice and 30 state attorneys general filed a lawsuit against Live Nation Entertainment, the parent company of Ticketmaster, for alleged monopolistic practices. Live Nation and…

Ticketmaster is at the heart of a US antitrust lawsuit against parent company Live Nation

The U.K. will shortly get its own rulebook for Big Tech, after peers in the House of Lords agreed Thursday afternoon to pass the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer bill…

‘Pro-competition’ rules for Big Tech make it through UK’s pre-election wash-up

Spotify’s addition of its AI DJ feature, which introduces personalized song selections to users, was the company’s first step into an AI future. Now, Spotify is developing an alternative version…

Spotify experiments with an AI DJ that speaks Spanish

Call Arc can help answer immediate and small questions, according to the company. 

Arc Search’s new Call Arc feature lets you ask questions by ‘making a phone call’

After multiple delays, Apple and the Paris area transportation authority rolled out support for Paris transit passes in Apple Wallet. It means that people can now use their iPhone or…

Paris transit passes now available in iPhone’s Wallet app

Redwood Materials, the battery recycling startup founded by former Tesla co-founder JB Straubel, will be recycling production scrap for batteries going into General Motors electric vehicles.  The company announced Thursday…

Redwood Materials is partnering with Ultium Cells to recycle GM’s EV battery scrap

A new startup called Auggie is aiming to give parents a single platform where they can shop for products and connect with each other. The company’s new app, which launched…

Auggie’s new app helps parents find community and shop

Andrej Safundzic, Alan Flores Lopez and Leo Mehr met in a class at Stanford focusing on ethics, public policy and technological change. Safundzic — speaking to TechCrunch — says that…

Lumos helps companies manage their employees’ identities — and access

Remark trains AI models on human product experts to create personas that can answer questions with the same style of their human counterparts.

Remark puts thousands of human product experts into AI form

ZeroPoint claims to have solved compression problems with hyper-fast, low-level memory compression that requires no real changes to the rest of the computing system.

ZeroPoint’s nanosecond-scale memory compression could tame power-hungry AI infrastructure

In 2021, Roi Ravhon, Asaf Liveanu and Yizhar Gilboa came together to found Finout, an enterprise-focused toolset to help manage and optimize cloud costs. (We covered the company’s launch out…

Finout lands cash to grow its cloud spend management platform

On the heels of raising $102 million earlier this year, Bugcrowd is making good on its promise to use some of that funding to make acquisitions to strengthen its security…

Bugcrowd, the crowdsourced white-hat hacker platform, acquires Informer to ramp up its security chops

Google is preparing to build what will be the first subsea fiber-optic cable connecting the continents of Africa and Australia. The news comes as the major cloud hyperscalers battle it…

Google to build first subsea fiber-optic cable connecting Africa with Australia

The Kia EV3 — the new all-electric compact SUV revealed Thursday — illustrates a growing appetite among global automakers to bring generative AI into their vehicles.  The automaker said the…

The new Kia EV3 will have an AI assistant with ChatGPT DNA

Bing, Microsoft’s search engine, was working improperly for several hours on Thursday in Europe. At first, we noticed it wasn’t possible to perform a web search at all. Now it…

Bing’s API was down, taking Microsoft Copilot, DuckDuckGo and ChatGPT’s web search feature down too

If you thought autonomous driving was just for cars, think again. The “autonomous navigation” market — where ships steer themselves guided by AI, resulting in fuel and time savings —…

Autonomous shipping startup Orca AI tops up with $23M led by OCV Partners and MizMaa Ventures

The best known mycoprotein is probably Quorn, a meat substitute that’s fast approaching its 40th birthday. But Finnish biotech startup Enifer is cooking up something even older: Its proprietary single-cell…

Meet the Finnish biotech startup bringing a long-lost mycoprotein to your plate

Silo, a Bay Area food supply chain startup, has hit a rough patch. TechCrunch has learned that the company on Tuesday laid off roughly 30% of its staff, or north…

Food supply chain software maker Silo lays off ~30% of staff amid M&A discussions

Featured Article

Meta’s new AI council is composed entirely of white men

Meanwhile, women and people of color are disproportionately impacted by irresponsible AI.

24 hours ago
Meta’s new AI council is composed entirely of white men

If you’ve ever wanted to apply to Y Combinator, here’s some inside scoop on how the iconic accelerator goes about choosing companies.

Garry Tan has revealed his ‘secret sauce’ for getting into Y Combinator

Indian ride-hailing startup BluSmart has started operating in Dubai, TechCrunch has exclusively learned and confirmed with its executive. The move to Dubai, which has been rumored for months, could help…

India’s BluSmart is testing its ride-hailing service in Dubai