In an effort to kick-start a greater number of Black tech Founders in Europe, last year Google for Startups launched a $2m (£1.5m) grant fund to help tackle the quite obvious and stark racial inequality in the European tech industry. That fund ended up doubling to $4m (£3m) and now 40 Black-led tech starups across Europe will receive grants from the fund.
Each startup will be given $100,000 in non-dilutive cash awards, up to $200,000 in cloud credits and ad support, mentoring by industry execs and connections inside Google’s network.
Prior to the fund’s launch in 2021, less than 0.25% of venture capital (VC) funding went to Black-led startups in the UK.
British tech startups will make up two-thirds of the 40 companies selected across Europe, and are spread across beauty, fashion, education, construction and food/beverage.
Marta Krupinska, Head of Google for Startups UK: “For the second year in a row we’ve been able to debunk the myth of the ‘pipeline problem’. Europe is home to a wealth of talent from underrepresented backgrounds – we’re so excited to have doubled last year’s fund and partner with 40 fantastic companies, of which two-thirds are based in the UK, and one third is led by women.”
The full list is below (with the descriptions supplied by the startups themselves):
● Aline (Sweden): Lifelong Learning, quantified and validated for increased productivity in the Information Age.
● Automi AI (France): Automi empowers manufacturers to automate much more tasks than ever possible. The platorm uses ML to orchestrate mobile supercomputers that users connect to their workstations and train to peorm repetitive tasks.
● Base Plus (UK): Combining data, machine learning and formulation expertise to create precise and personalised skincare.
    
● Beazy (Germany): SaaS-enabled marketplace for content production
● Bloomful (UK): Delivering a digitally-enabled care pathway for beer gynecological health.
● Boxx (UK): Combining boxing inspired fitness with smart tech to provide a fun and accessible way to workout.
● Compare Ethics (UK): A Sustainable Product Intelligence and Compliance platform enabling companies to manage, verify, and condently communicate responsible product claims at scale.
● Deep Meta (UK): Predicting production defects in metals.
● Devo (UK): An end-to-end operating system enabling the digital transformation of convenience stores.
● Eccobell (UK): An ecosystem of on-demand web applications using contactless technology to innovate how people access, communicate and interact with each other, unrestricted by device.
● Ekie (France): Ekie facilitates access to legal services for employees to improve the essential balance between their professional and personal lives.
● Feniska (Germany): A Berlin based Health-Tech sta-up building IoT products to help cat and dog owners track the health of their pets.
● FoodLama (UK): Online grocery shopping with preferences, made easy.
● Framework (UK): The world’s rst on-demand business school, designed exclusively for startups.
● Fresh Afrika (France): Fresh Afrika is a Paris-based FoodTech company using the blockchain technology to deliver a beer food experience and connect small scale farmers in Africa to the world.
● GigBridge (UK): A recruitment platform for construction companies to nd and hire skilled construction workers.
● Goodloans (UK): AI-powered digital lending platform for emerging markets.
● Hyndr (Germany): The B2B marketplace for the hydrogen economy.
● ID Protect (France): ID Protect is the 3D secure for identity documents, changing the game in prevention against fraud and identity theft.
● Kuorum (Spain): SaaS for legal and secure online voting
● Lenkie (UK): Providing the embedded lending infrastructure to enable online platforms to become a source of funding for their business users.
● Liquisto (Germany): Liquisto is a data-driven platform of digital solutions for sustainably transforming excess industrial inventory into liquidity for manufacturers and new utility for end-users of industrial equipment.
● Materials Nexus (UK): Accelerating the transition towards net-zero materials.
● MoonHub (UK): Viual Reality training plaorm.
● Nolea (UK): Solving the healthcare demand-supply mismatch problem with our fractional clinician marketplace plaorm.
● Owni (UK): A B2B SaaS company that enables fashion retailers and brands to reap the benefits of resale and the secondary market through a peer-to-peer resale plaorm
● Pace Revenue (UK): Providing real-time, automated decision intelligence, and industry
leading BI to the hospitality industry.
                 
● Propel (Germany): Propel is building multi-layered digital infrastructure to power the Tech Talent Economy.
● Propelle (UK): A female focused financial investment plaorm, designed to get women investing more regularly and building wealth.
● Reach Industries (UK): A platform that leverages computer vision, voice & ML to accelerate life sciences in labs.
● Reframd (Germany): Inclusive eyewear products for a diverse world.
● Ruka (UK): The Ruka vision is to become the definitive hair brand for black women globally, by building an ecosystem of hair solutions which truly work.
● Sojo (UK): A sustainable fashiontech staup centralising & modernising the clothing repair and tailoring industry.
● SympliFi (UK): A digital lending plaorm that facilitates access to credit to underserved micro and SME businesses in developing countries, by making lending borderless.
● Tinto (UK): A wellbeing app for pregnant and postnatal mothers.
● TRIM-IT (UK): The UK’s rst app-powered mobile barbershops.
● VerifyMyAge (UK): Creates safety tech solutions designed to make the internet safer by solving compliance and safeguarding problems with age assurance, identity authentication and content moderation.
● Yuty (UK): An AI driven conscious beauty marketplace.
● Yvee (France): Yvee assists companies in the 3 main steps of a hiring process: sourcing, skills screening and selection.
● Zest (Netherlands): Zest develops soware-driven, personalized lifestyle treatment to prevent, control, & reverse chronic conditions such as diabetes without spending more on medications.