Entering its third year, the Black Founders Fund has seen many prospecting Black entrepreneurs receiving grants amounting to $86,000 on average. Google are not the only tech giant to set up this sort of initiative that supports underrepresented communities, Amazon’s Alexa Accelerator, for example, also aims to support Black founders developing voice assistant technology. Meta is another of these tech giants that have teamed up with NatWest to support female entrepreneurs in particular.

The hope with these initiatives is to promote a more diverse startup funding scene, which in turn will promote a more diverse startup environment overall.

Matt Brittin, President of Google EMEA had this to say regarding the funding: “Today less than a per cent of venture capital funding globally goes to Black-led startups; Black people make up less than 3% of the Venture Capital community; and Black founders in Europe disproportionately lack access to the networks and capital needed to grow their business.

“That doesn’t just rob Black founders of opportunity; it robs society of their game-changing ideas and the businesses, jobs, and change they create.

“In 2020, Google created the Black Founders Fund to change that.

“We started in the US – but it recognition of the exceptional talent across the world, we soon expanded to Brazil, Europe, and Africa.

“Since that initial fund in 2020, we’ve provided over $34 million in cash awards to 448 Black and Latino founders – who have gone on to raise over $400 million after our investment. Beyond the capital, recipients join a tight-knit community and get deep mentorship and training from Googlers and our partners.

“We’re announcing the third cohort of the Google for Startups Black Founders Fund in Europe and Africa – worth a total of $4 million. Startups have until the 26th March to apply for the fund, and successful startups will receive:

• Up to $150,000 in non-dilutive cash awards
• Up to $100,00 in Cloud credits in their first year
• Ad support
• 1:1 mentoring by industry experts
• The best of Google’s people, products, and practices
• Invaluable connections within Google’s network

“I’m so excited to see what innovative solutions the startups of the 2023 cohort will bring.”