The Black Train Trust has scored a $100,000 investment from the Maryland Technology Development Corp. (TEDCO) to help bring its product to market this year.
The Baltimore-based tech startup has built a software platform to help firms measure and improve racial equity. It bills its core product, EquiScore BI, as "the Workday for diversity, equity and inclusion professionals."
"We’re proud to have created a tool to help companies make data-driven decisions to track and measurably improve DEI," the Black Brain Trust CEO Angel St. Jean said in a statement. "TEDCO’s recent investment means The Black Brain Trust can bring our platform to market this year and meet the high demand we already have for our product."
TEDCO, a public-private entity tasked with investing in Maryland tech companies and helping them grow, made the pre-seed investment from its Builders fund. The state-backed organization launched the Builder Fund in 2018 to support Maryland-based "economically disadvantaged" startups, namely minority and women-owned firms, that traditionally face social and economic barriers in trying to access capital. The fund's goal is to help portfolio companies become better positioned for larger follow-on investments in the future.
"The Black Brain Trust’s platform creates a more transparent and equitable workplace, a product that is closely aligned with our Builder fund goals," Jean-Luc Park, senior director of social impact funds at TEDCO, said in a statement. "TEDCO is proud to support innovative products that empower future generations to lessen inequalities in the workplace."
The Black Brain Trust previously received $100,000 in seed funding from local software firm Fearless, as well as $50,000 from the Harbor Bank of Maryland Community Development Corp.
TEDCO's Builders Fund also recently invested $100,000 in Astek Diagnostics, Inc., a Baltimore-based medical device startup that spun out of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. The company is developing a platform that guides physicians in prescribing appropriate antibiotics for patients with bacterial sepsis in one hour.
Sepsis is a potentially life-threatening condition that occurs when the body's response to an infection damages its own tissues and can lead to the body going into septic shock.
"We’re very grateful to TEDCO, and we look forward to a productive partnership as we work to bring our platform to market," Astek CEO Mustafa Al-Adhami said in a statement.
