A Birmingham-based startup has been chosen for a Google program for entrepreneurs.
Birmingham's SmartWiz, formerly known as TaxxWiz, was chosen. CEO and founder Tevin Harrell is among 23 Google Black Founders Fund recipients.
Google for Startups unveiled recipients Thursday of its fourth Google for Startups Black Founders Fund and second Latino Founders Fund, which respectively provide promising Black and Latino-led startups non-equity cash awards to help fuel their businesses.
SmartWiz is a tax preparation company that uses an IRS-approved software that allows tax professionals and CPAs to file returns in minutes versus hours.
“The Google for Startups Black Founders Fund is huge for us,” Harrell said. “The support will be used to continue to develop (artificial intelligence) in our product with Google's AI specialist, get more dominance in the SEO space for tax professional software and advance the product with some of the best engineers in the world at Google.”
The Google for Startups Black and Latino Founders Funds will provide $150,000 cash awards as well as hands-on support to help Black entrepreneurs build and grow their businesses. In addition to the non-dilutive capital and up to $100,000 in Google Cloud credits, recipients also receive mentorship from "Googlers," along with other resources such as sales training, investor prep, mental health coaching and community offerings at no cost.
“In 2020, we launched our first Google for Startups Black Founders Fund to help Black tech entrepreneurs overcome the disproportionate hurdles they face when raising capital,” said Lisa Gevelber, vice president of Google for Startups. “Over the past three years, we’ve significantly expanded the scope of our work, expanding our Black Founders Fund to Europe, Africa and Brazil, and to Latino founders in the U.S. We've now provided $45 million in cash awards and to 547 promising entrepreneurs through our Black and Latino Founders Funds. We are excited to welcome a new group of diverse founders who are using technology to solve some of society's biggest problems.”
Since 2020, Google for Startups has contributed $600,000 to six startups in the state of Alabama.
The news comes shortly after SmartWiz returned to Birmingham after executives spent time in Los Angeles to participate in a major accelerator.
The accelerator, Techstars Los Angeles, is open to founders of all backgrounds, with a focus on Black, Hispanic and Latino, Indigenous American and Pacific Islander entrepreneurs building startups in health care, wellness, B2B SaaS, deep tech, energy, robotics, fintech, mobility, logistics, legaltech, education and CPG.
SmartWiz executives embarked on the 12-week intensive program surrounded by a network of corporate partners, mentors, investors and Techstars alumni. Fundraising opportunities, workshops and curated resources were provided.
Earlier this year, Ziscuit, a grocery search engine that aims to save shoppers money by having grocery stores bid to fulfill their shopping lists, was chosen along with 46 other startups from across the nation to participate in the program as well. Acclinate, Mixtroz and SynsorMed participated in 2021. Smart Alto was selected for Google for Startups Accelerator: Black Founders in 2022.
