11 Black Female Founders Who’ve Raised $1 Million or More in Venture Capital This Year

• Last year, only 93 Black women raised $1 million or more in venture-capital funds. 
• Black and Latinx women founders received 0.43% of the $166 billion in VC funding from 2020.
• Insider is compiling a list of Black female founders who’ve raised $1 million or more in VC in 2021.
• See more stories on Insider’s business page.

Black female founders in the US face many challenges, but one of the most detrimental is the lack of funding granted to them.

Only 93 Black female founders raised $1 million or more in venture capital last year, up from 34 in 2018, found ProjectDiane, a biennial report on the state of Black and Latinx women founders by the organization digitalundivided.

What’s more, Black and Latinx women founders received 0.43% of the $166 billion in VC funding given out last year. But since September 2020, 27 new Black and Latinx women founders have raised more than $1 million in funding.

For example, Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty announced in February a $115 million Series B, and Toyin Ajayi’s Cityblock Health — which includes cofounders Iyah Romm and Bay Gross — raised a $400 million Series D in September.

Kerry Schrader, a cofounder of the peer-to-peer engagement company Mixtroz, said there are many funders who often benefit from the optics of helping Black female founders, without actually allocating capital to them.

“We have to remove the entire ceiling so that we all can have the same access without risking bleed-out as we pass through the shards of glass,” said Schrader, who raised a $1 million seed round this May. “The only way to fix the problem is to measure progress and be transparent with the results.” 

Here are 11 Black female founders who’ve raised $1 million or more this year. Insider intends to track and update this list throughout the year.

If you’re a Black female founder who’s raised $1 million or more in VC funding this year, please contact this reporter at ddavis@insider.com.