As part of its plan to invest millions into Black founders, four local startups are counting Google as a new backer.
Via its Google for Startups Black Founders Fund, the Alphabet-owned tech giant awarded $100,000 in non-dilutive funding along with up to $220,000 in support tools and services to the North Texas startups.
Fêtefully, Safer Management, XR Sports Group and CustomerX.i are among 50 companies that received a collective $5 million. Head of Google for Startups US Jewel Burks Solomon said the initiative is aimed at addressing the disparity of funding that goes to Black founders, who she said receive less than 1% of venture capital dollars.
“Across the US, there are amazing Black startup founders who are building great companies yet are locked out of access to the funding that is critical to their success,” Google wrote in a blog post.
Fêtefully, an online wedding and event planning marketplace, was launched by GiGi McDowell in 2016. The investment from Google’s fund comes directly on the heels of a $1.3 million seed funding round led by Slauson & Co. and Gurtin Ventures that the company raised this month, McDowell said. She added that with the new funding, the company is looking to hire as it boosts its product development.
Launched in June of last year, Safer Management was founded by Fred Burns to help schools and extracurricular organizations track health and safety procedures via an app that tracks things like attendance, incident reports and screening checks. Already, the company’s platform, which incorporates facial recognition and thermal scanning tech, is used by 55 schools. Burns said the funding will help develop new machine learning and AI technologies in the educational space.
A participant in local nonprofit Impact Ventures’ 2020 accelerator program, XR Sports Group is a Frisco-based startup focused on helping influencers build personalized social media platforms. The company was founded in 2019 by Kedreon Cole, a former VP of gaming and esports at early-stage venture capital and private equity firm Scoreboard Ventures. The company is currently transitioning from a beta to a public launch and plans to use the funding for its go-to-market strategy.
CustomerX.i is a transplant to North Texas, relocating to the region from the Cleveland area around the time it emerged from stealth in 2019, drawn to the region by its retail and restaurant activity and an investment by Capital Factory. Founded by Hakeem James, who calls CustomerX.i the “easy button” for companies to know their clients, the startup’s technology helps small businesses leverage consumer insights and data. The funding will help the company expand its team. In April, James told NTX Inno, CustomerX.i was aiming to more than triple its nearly 10-person by the end of the year.
“Being recognized and backed by Google is monumental for us; it is a signal to our partners of our growing success in the market and the expanded capacity we now have to serve our clients,” James said in a statement.
Last year, the Google for Startups Black Founders Fund invested $300,000 in four DFW startups – Kanarys, Zirtue, ShearShare and CourMed – that were among 76 to receive a collective $5 million. Those companies went on to find success, in part due to the Google for Startups’ program follow-up support, said Mandy Price, co-founder and CEO of Kanarys. Kanarys raised a $3 million seed round at the beginning of the year. Zirtue landed an investment from Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures in April, bringing its total to $4 million. Shortly after receiving funding from Google, ShearShare announced a $2.3 million seed round. CourMed recently announced landing the first $500,000 interest-free, five-year loan from Microsoft. CourMed’s founder and CEO Derrick Miles attributed the mentorship he received from Google as a major help getting the company expand its verticals and find its market fit as an enterprise software and concierge health care service provider.
“I realized that Google started off as a search engine. Amazon started off as an online bookseller. Microsoft started off as office productivity software. They saw an opportunity, and they blew up,” Miles previously told NTX Inno. “Basically, what they said to us is, ‘Hey, anything within the health care space, you guys should be expanding your verticals.’ And that's what we did.”
