Founder Piersten Gaines turned a white space in the market into a money-making business. The Harvard Business School (HBS) graduate noticed her friends traveling from Boston, MA, to other cities, such as New York and Houston, TX, forking over $250 for blowouts. Meanwhile, she spent only $45 at a dry bar and avoided the inconvenience of the travel costs. Gaines was convinced that there should be a solution out in the world to address this pain point for the textured hair community. She was determined to launch one, despite not having any prior experience in the industry, she said during a fireside chat held during an exclusive happy hour, hosted by Slauson & Co. and Black Women in Venture Capital, to kick off AFROTECH™ Conference 2025 in Houston. Pressed Roots It would be losing her mother to lymphoma during her second semester at HBS that reshaped her goals and inspired her to create Pressed Roots, Boston Voyager reports. Its formation was aided by Gaines’s hairstylist from the dry...

Rashaun Williams’ HBCU pride guides his path as an entrepreneur and serial investor. The South Side of Chicago native, who will be appearing on Season 17 of “Shark Tank” as a guest judge, comes from humble beginnings. During the Clover x Shark Tank Summit held at The Venetian in Las Vegas, he recalled to AFROTECH™ a time when he’d run extension cords from next door through a window just to power hot plates, relying on kerosene heaters, and looking to the Sears Tower from a distance — now renamed the Willis Tower — at those who were living the American Dream. Williams Enrolls in Morehouse College Over time, Williams vowed to change not only his own circumstances but those of his family and community. He wanted to attend a school that created Black leaders, guiding him to Morehouse College , he told AFROTECH™. Determined to secure his place, he drove his application to the campus rather than mailing it. He enrolled in 1997. “Morehouse is kind of the Harvard of the Black community. The...

Group Black, co-founded in June 2021 by Richelieu Dennis, Bonin Bough, and Travis Montaque, sought to secure advertising commitments from brands and agencies to channel spending toward Black-owned publishers. According to Adweek, backed by an initial $75 million investment from GroupM and multimillion-dollar deals with Ziff Davis and NBCUniversal, the collective aimed to raise and distribute funding of $500 million. However, the group is now the center of two lawsuits. In May 2025, Essence Communications filed a lawsuit against Group Black, which responded with a countersuit in June. These legal actions follow a dismissed October 2024 lawsuit by Essence Communications, alleging that Group Black owed $20 million to its publishers, Essence and Afropunk, and had misused the funds. Essence Communications is a subsidiary of Dennis’ Sundial Media and Technology Group. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, Sundial Media Group is a vertically integrated media, technology, and experiential...

Olamide Olowe is being candid about her latest foray in the business world. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, the Nigerian-American is the co-founder of the skincare company Topicals. Olowe raised $14 million in funding for the company before she was 26. Over the years, she has secured investor participation from Jay-Z’s Marcy Venture Partners, Kelly Rowland, Gabrielle Union, Yvonne Orji, Bozoma Saint John, and more. Tropicals is also the fastest-growing skincare brand sold at Sephora, according to Beauty Independent. While Olowe has experienced success as an entrepreneur, she continues to confront the daunting realities that many other founders face regarding raising capital. Olowe has also felt the shift in attitudes. “You would think that it’d be super easy for me to raise capital, but it’s not for whatever reason, whether it’s the economy this year or whether people feel like it’s too much risk,” she told Beauty Independent. View this post on Instagram A post shared by TOPICALS...

Zimbabwean billionaire Strive Masiyiwa is looking to invest significantly in Africa’s AI infrastructure. Masiyiwa is the founder of Cassava Technologies, a telecom solutions provider that prioritizes fiber networks, data centers, renewable energy, cloud computing, and cybersecurity, according to its website. It operates throughout the world with significant concentration in Africa, Latin America, and the U.S. The company also raised $90 million in funding in 2024, with Google as one of its investors, to connect Africa and Australia with the first subsea fiber-optic cable. With this, it continues striving to be the “global technology company of African heritage,” notes TechCrunch. On Cassava Technologies’ landing page, the company shares the tagline “AI is the beginning of better business.” As it relates to Africa, Masiyiwa believes AI will breed the world’s next billionaires. According to Forbes, he has a reported net worth of $1.3 billion. “AI will mint the next generation of...

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...

Salt Lake City, UT-based Holladay Bank & Trust — located in a community with a Black population of less than 3% — is now Redemption Bank, following its acquisition by Redemption Holding Co. (RHC). Initially announced in 2023, the deal marks the first time a Black-led investment group has owned a bank in the Western U.S., according to The Associated Press. Redemption Holding Co. Chairman and CEO Ashley D. Bell, former White House policy advisor, cited the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in 2023 for the acquisition delay. “This process has undoubtedly taken longer than any of us anticipated,” Bell said. “However, we are grateful for the diligence of the staff at the FDIC, the leadership of the (American Bankers Association), and the renewed sense of urgency from the new administration this year, all of which helped bring everything together.” Redemption Bank is now the first Black-owned bank in U.S. history in the Rocky Mountain region and the only one in the “Black-banking desert,”...

In East Oakland, CA, a powerful coalition of Black-led organizations has secured $100 million to fund Rise East, a decade-long effort to transform 40 blocks into a model for what real community-led development can look like, Shoppe Black reports. According to the outlet, after decades of disinvestment and promises not met, the project marks one of the most significant grassroots investments in Oakland’s history, aimed at reversing long-standing patterns of displacement and economic exclusion. A Vision Rooted In Community At the center of Rise East is the 40×40 Council, a group of Black-led nonprofits working together to create long-term stability by focusing on three key areas: education, public safety, and housing. The 40-block area, according to Shoppe Black, spans from Interstate 580 to the San Francisco Bay and from Seminary Avenue to the San Leandro border. It’s home to Oakland’s largest concentration of Black residents, a community that has long endured the ongoing effects of...