Supporting Black tech entrepreneurs through the fourth Google for Startups Accelerator: Black Founders program — Google for Developers Blog

Posted by Lauren O’Neil, Startup Developer Ecosystem Lead, and Matt Ridenour, Head of US Startup Ecosystem

We are thrilled to announce our latest cohort of the Google for Startups Accelerator: Black Founders program as it embarks on its fourth year serving Black founders in the U.S. and Canada.

The 12 companies selected for this year’s cohort reflect the trends of the broader application pool – startups focused on improving healthcare outcomes, protecting the environment, reducing consumer energy consumption, and removing barriers to financial resources and home ownership (just to name a few). Additionally, these companies are utilizing emerging AI technologies to streamline and simplify customer, consumer, and professional experiences at all levels.

“This year’s cohort represents the massive opportunity that Google has to invest in the future of tech entrepreneurship, and how Google supports a broader ecosystem of driving innovation in key industries. It’s truly impressive to see how this cohort is tackling some of the world’s toughest problems, from energy to medicine to finance, and enabling the creator economy for games, music, and content.”  

– Jeanine Banks, VP & General Manager, Developer X and Head of Developer Relations.

Hear from a few founders who will participate in this 10-week program, commencing September 26th.

Seyi Adesola, Cofounder & CEO of AfroHealth: “Losing my mom to a preventable illness ignited my journey into healthcare, leading me to become a professional healthcare practitioner while providing individual health coaching to my church community, family and friends. AfroHealth was formed as an expansion of this vision, an online platform to provide Black individuals with culturally-sensitive online health coaching.”

Nana Wilberforce, Founder & CEO of Akeptus: “In the United States alone, one-third of households grapple with monthly energy bills, with 20% on the brink of losing access, and this hardship disproportionately affects minority groups. Akeptus was founded to empower households and enterprises to control their energy costs via AI solutions that simplify energy management.”

Nicole Clay, Cofounder & CMO of Hue: “My co-founders and I came together as three women across the skin tone spectrum who struggled with representation in beauty and finding products for our unique complexions. We are an e-commerce technology company that matches shoppers to real people who share the same skin tone, skin type, or preferences as you.”

Seyi: “During the program, our first priority is perfecting the integration of Artificial Intelligence with our platform. We hope to utilize the full potential of Google’s ML and TensorFlow frameworks to improve health outcomes in the Afro community.”

Nana: “We’re most excited about the accelerator for the hands-on Cloud and AI expertise to refine our algorithms and infrastructure, allowing us to scale our impact on sustainability.”

Nicole: “During the program, we are looking to apply AI/ML to create and optimize video content, and leverage AI to ease the process for everyday end-users to create their own video reviews.”

AfroHealth (Dallas, TX) is a digital health & wellness platform utilizing AI to provide personalized healthcare coaching to Black and Brown communities.

Akeptus (Glenwood, MD) is an AI-powered energy management platform that provides real-time insights and control to optimize usage and energy costs, reduce waste, and strengthen grid resilience.

CareCopilot (New York, NY) is a curated marketplace of key services that families need when caring for elderly loved ones.

eBanqo (Alpharetta, GA) is a customer engagement AI platform that empowers businesses of all sizes to provide instant and seamless service to their customers across all channels, 24/7.

Expedier (Hamilton, ON) is the first Black-led, Black-Owned & BIPOC facing digital bank in Canada serving six million underserved BIPOC Canadians. (learn more about Expedier on our Google Canada blog!)

Hue (San Francisco, CA) is an AI-powered video platform that helps brands generate and display short-form video reviews on e-commerce.

IndyGeneUS (Washington, D.C.) is a precision medicine company using next-generation sequencing technologies to identify unique gene variants in diseases that affect underrepresented populations.

Kwema (St. Louis, MO) is a smart badge reel for healthcare professionals that empowers clinicians to unobtrusively call for help when facing patient violence.

My Home Pathway (New York, NY) is a technology platform that guides first-time home buyers to approval faster by analyzing data and providing individualized recommendations.

Pagedip (Boulder, CO) is a no-code content publishing app that allows users to create beautifully efficient, powerfully effective and demonstrably measurable documents that work better for teams and their customers.

Plannly Health (Scottsdale, AZ) is a patent-pending risk management software dedicated to mitigating the risk of human errors in hospitals, by offering a digital health solution that addresses provider stress, burnout, and critical life events or changes.

Find more information at g.co/blackfoundersaccelerator.