New Voices is a global initiative for women founders of color. This groundbreaking initiative, designed to level the playing field, provides women-of-color entrepreneurs with unprecedented access, capital and expertise (ACE) they need to excel and grow their businesses.

This work is accomplished through online programming, including virtual classes and webinars, along with offline programming, including mobile accelerators, pitch competitions, coaching and mentoring.

This year New Voices headed to Las Vegas to participate in CES 2020. Leveraging our Village concept, we participated in Eureka Park™ — a forum for early stage companies. We selected our New Voices Pitch Competition winners to participate in the Village, a branded activation for New Voices. The four companies were Royelles, Don’t Get Mad Get Paid, Fria and MedHaul.

CES was an important venue for New Voices as we seek to amplify our work in the tech sector and to provide much needed visibility for our black female founders. Venture capital investments in women are up to 2.8% in 2019, with less than 1% going to black founders. Our hope was to demonstrate the presence of powerful black women tech founders and highlight emerging talent through our pitch competition.

Fria Founder Sheilisa McNeal noted, “Access opens doors that are typically and strategically closed.”

During the course of CES, the New Voices Village received a lot of attention, from large companies to state-funded accelerators. The visitors noted their desire to engage with, and support, black founders due to recent diversity and inclusion initiatives in their firms or aligned with public funding.

This interest is not new for New Voices. Our work is driven by the fact that demographic data in the U.S. shows a new majority emerging in our population. This means more diverse people will seek diverse products and services. We also know that while entrepreneurship among white males is on the decline, black women are creating businesses six times faster than their white male peers.

New Voices Pitch Competition

New Voices was pleased with the interest and attention that both the Village and pitch competition received. Our $100K pitch competition is designed to provide valuable “friends & family” capital that is not readily available for diverse founders. 

The CES-based competition attracted black female founders from across the country who were interested in receiving the non-dilutive funding.

Pitch Competition Results

New Voices is pleased to have awarded eight women of color tech entrepreneurs a total of $100,000 at CES.

Auriel Wright of StrattyX: Mobile trading software made for everyone to create, test, and automate their trading.

Adero Davis of FairFare: A direct booking, personalized ride-fare mobile application that allows users to compare fares of ride shares.

Asha Owens of Best Fit: A decision-making app to help students fully understand how school choice can impact outcomes and identify colleges that can provide them with the support and environment to succeed.

Amanda DoAmaral of Fiveable: A social learning platform with interactive study resources designed to help students get on top of their AP exams.

Crystal Evuleocha of Kliit Health: A digital sexual & reproductive health app connecting users to health experts. 

Lydia Bassally of NaTakallam: An online language tutoring, cultural exchange and translation services delivered by displaced persons & refugees in Arabic, French, Persian, Spanish, Portuguese and more.

Janna Westbrook of Provider Pool Co: A tech platform that provides flexible private nursing opportunities.

Anaitte Vaccaro of Soblime: Sustainable, customizable, solar charging station and smart light, with IoT capabilities.

New Voices is pleased with the results of first our CES engagement. Most important, the opportunity was invaluable for the New Voices entrepreneurs.

Erica Plybeah from MedHaul said, “The most useful aspect of CES to me and my business were the connections I developed with the other women in the village, meeting CTA team members in person that I had emailed for about two years, and learning how sell my business in a large trade show environment (this was my first time exhibiting).”

Melissa Bradley serves an advisor the New Voices Foundation and New Voices Fund. She is the former co-chair of the National Advisory Council for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and was recently named one of The Most Entrepreneurial Women Investors in 2018. Bradley is co-founder of Ureeka, a community committed to democratizing economic opportunity and reducing the friction and cost for small business owners to grow their businesses. She is a professor at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University where she teaches impact investing, social entrepreneurship, P2P economies and innovation. She recently received The Ideas Worth Teaching Award, which celebrates exceptional courses that are preparing future business leaders to tackle society’s largest challenges and create a more inclusive, just and sustainable version of capitalism.