There are thousands of Black-owned businesses that are seeking venture capital and investors. The industries vary greatly, as well the locations and the amount of capital needed. Below, we’ve published a list of this year’s top eight Black-owned businesses to invest in. All of them are start-up tech firms, and all of them are already experiencing some level of success.
1. Calyxeum (Cannabis, Cultivation, Processing, Social Impact)
Calyxeum is an MBE/WBE business located in Detroit, MI. Calyxeum is a boutique Cannabis Cultivation and Processing operation focused on providing underrepresented populations with access to high-quality Cannabis products. Calyxeum also has a Community Impact Initiative with plans to rehabilitate abandoned homes, build community gardens, and offer workforce development programs for people of color looking to gain employment and ownership access in Legal Cannabis. Calyxeum founders have over 10 years of experience in Michigan’s burgeoning Cannabis industry and are Social Equity entrepreneurs. Within the last year, the team has successfully launched their Cannabis flower products in over 25 retail stores around the State of Michigan with the overwhelming support of the community. Detroit has recently approved Adult-Use sales and Michigan is the second-largest market in the U.S. and sales are projected to be 7.8 Billion (including Adult Use) by market maturity, invest in Michigan Cannabis. Calyxeum is currently raising 250K to expand its canopy footprint and increase production to meet high demand! You can invest in Calyxeum on Mainvest, a Crowdfunding platform that allows individuals to invest as little as $100 and receive 1.5X ROI! To become an investor and take advantage of this unique opportunity visit https://mainvest.com/b/calyxeum-detroit. To follow their journey visit Calyxeum.com or follow @Calyxeum_Detroit
2. JéGO
JéGO Technologies Inc. is a Miami-based technology company that is a market maker in designing Autonomous electric vehicles for commercial use and on-the-go services founded by Frederick Akpoghene in 2021. JéGO has taken a significant step forward in driving the adoption of Sustainability by making Electric Vehicles more accessible and has commenced its E-Mobility Infrastructure development, which includes a plan for establishing a Global network of universal Smart Electric Vehicle charging stations, primarily targeting traditionally underserved communities. JèGO is definitely one of the companies disrupting the norms in technology and commerce, placing them as one of the top startups to watch out for in 2022. The company has even been able to garner traction with pre-orders, strategic partnerships, and secured capital from angel investors. After going through a rigorous due diligence process, the public can now invest in the company through Start Engine for a limited time. The company has partnered with an Italian manufacturer with clients such as Maserati, Ferrari & Lamborghini. And has been able to secure over $250,000 (appx $100k has been raised through crowdfunding)with a target raise of $1M. JéGO is still accepting investments in an effort to solidify its strong position in the industry as well as grow its operations, build the JéGO Pods, reach more customers, and meet the demand of the growing need for Electric Vehicle Chargers. To become a part of this innovative global solution and technological growth, visit www.startengine.com/jego. Also, follow JéGO’s journey on Instagram @JegoTechnologies and Twitter @JeGOPods
3. touCanna
touCanna is an operations management software designed to help cannabis businesses manage and scale their operations while remaining compliant and adhering to strict government regulations. With touCanna, cannabis business owners have the power to track and manage sales and inventory, empower employees through training and performance management, organize teams through scheduling and task management, and improve process adherence with SOP and Policy management. The touCanna founding team has been heavily involved in initiatives designed to help cannabis entrepreneurs of color establish their businesses and aspiring cannabis professionals secure roles in the legal cannabis market. The company has successfully launched its beta product in 2021 and is now seeking a pre-seed investment of $500,000 to execute sales/marketing efforts and continue to enhance and add functionality to the platform. touCanna is initially launching in Michigan but has plans to quickly expand to neighboring states where cannabis has recently been legalized and the market is up for grabs. For more information, please contact co-founder Cree Robinson at cree.robinson@toucanna.io or visit toucanna.io
4. Your Green Package
“Your Green Package is a leading Massachusetts-based, minority-owned cannabis delivery. We are among the first companies in the Commonwealth to receive a marijuana delivery license. Your Green Package was built on the foundation of diversity, it is important to them that every employee, customer, and stakeholder feel comfortable being their authentic selves––that being said, 72% of their staff is made up of women, POC, Veterans, or LGBTQ+. Your Green Package qualified for its license under a state-run social equity program that prioritizes applicants whose communities have been disproportionately harmed by marijuana prohibition and enforcement. In under a year, Your Green Package has established 6 delivery partnerships with dispensaries all over Massachusetts and has conducted 15,000+ deliveries. Your Green Package is also the only cannabis entity in Massachusetts that has the ability to conduct consumer and business-to-business deliveries. They also have a provisional Product Manufacturing license with the hopes of bringing unique marijuana-infused products to market in 2023. The team is actively raising their series A round and is seeking 2.5M to support the buildout and further expansion of the business. For more information, please contact the CEO Christopher Fevry at info@yourgeenpackage.com or visit www.yourgreenpackage.com
5. Umba Daima (NFTs, Web3, Art & Community)
Umba Daima is an NFT studio that is strengthening and diversifying the web3 ecosystem through art and experiential programs. Umba Daima aims to build the largest and most diverse global network in Web3 with NFTs as a strategic engagement and onboarding tool. Their online events, IRL events, art exhibits, workshops, and incubators provide significant life-changing experiences for aspiring NFT creators, collectors, founders, and developers. As people onboard into NFTs through their programming, they become a part of the community where they continue to engage and collaborate with each other, the Umba Daima team, and their brand partners. Umba Daima has 3 additional brands that push the mission forward. Black NFT Art provides community and free promotion for Black creators. With 25,000 followers across Instagram and Twitter, Black NFT Art has become their most recognizable brand to date. The Unseen Gallery is a virtual art gallery in the metaverse that focuses on truly inclusive and innovative art curation. The NFT Roundtable Podcast covers everything related to NFTs, highlighting and amplifying some of the most important projects and game-changers. CEO Iris Nevins is a former teacher, community organizer, and software engineer who is using her wide range of talents to build a multi-dimensional community network that is carving out space in web3 for diverse groups to be seen, valued, and compensated. For interest in learning more about Umba Daima email info@umbadaima.com or visit umbadaima.com
6. TRiBL
TRiBL is a crypto-powered community money pooling platform for the culture. Their super app makes creating a Web3 investor club as simple as a group chat. Positioned as a Discord for DAOs, TRiBL is going after the emerging $8B DAO market scaling access to unique investment opportunities across NFTs, crypto, startups, & more. Each money pooling community has the ability to learn and earn together through an all-in-one experience that combines group messaging and crypto payments. With global partnerships with VISA, Circle (USDC), & Prime Trust, TRiBL is set to launch this summer with a focus on Black & Latin communities.” For more information, visit @jointribl or email at ikechi@thetriblnetwork.com
7. Elroi
Elroi is rethinking the power dynamic between Consumers and Enterprises with a three-phased approach. First, Elroi is powered by cutting-edge AI technology that helps enterprise clients in with automated compliance with over 130 data privacy and regulatory laws. Elroi is equipped with technology to service data mapping across multiple platforms and file systems, encompassing structured, semi-structured and unstructured data, including not only common pdf and nested files, but also video and audio files. Consumer Solution, as a second prong to Elroi’s ecosystem, has been developed to empower consumers with transparency and ease of requesting their data and monitoring by making appropriate decisions. Thirdly, and most important step is to enable consumers to monetize on the largest commodity they own, their private data. Elroi is led by a brilliant Privacy Attorney, Rachel Cash, who believes that Data privacy is a right. Elroi Enterprise Inc is currently seeking $2M, which will be allocated towards education and marketing of consumer products, providing services to consumers at no cost, scaling Enterprise products, and building a stronger relationship between Enterprises and Consumers by championing the equilibrium of data privacy and its consumption. To learn more about the company and/or how to invest, email rachel@elroi.ai or visit www.elroi.ai
8. NixCode
Sydney founded NixCode, formerly Tequity, a SaaS platform to provide education and software that can empower any nontechnical founder with the ability to launch their own mobile tech startup without code. Sydney launched NixCode in April 2020, with the goal to remove the hurdles associated with not having a technical co-founder. The success of the platform’s adoption over other no-code platforms is the similar development approach to WordPress. NixCode offers template design, plugin marketplaces, and product integrations that make the platform easy to use for those who lack logic programming basics. Sydney has grown NixCode to over 56,000 users with 8x year over year revenue growth organically, with the help of equity-free capital via pitch competitions. The capital wins were especially significant due to a historically high barrier to entry with Black tech founders and VC firms. Data shows that Black startup entrepreneurs still received a small sliver of the pie — only1.2% of $147 billion in venture capital invested in U.S. startups through the first half of 2021. NixCode is on a mission to help marginalized mobile tech startups get from MVP to IPO via their no-code solution, to date, 2% of the startups building with NixCode have received capital investment. NixCode is preparing for its first investment round this late summer in alignment with a new software release that will provide full CTO services via artificial intelligence and expand the platform’s capability to add crypto wallets and NFT marketplaces without code to mobile apps built on their platform. Try building your app for free at nixcodeapps.com and for partnership or investment inquiries, visit nixcodeapps.com/about/#partnership
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