Dive Brief:

• Google said Thursday that it invested $5 million across 50 more Black entrepreneurs as part of its Black Founders Fund program, according to a Sept. 8 company blog post and a spokesperson for the company. It’s the third cohort to receive such investments, which don’t require the founders to provide the tech giant with an ownership stake, the spokesperson fsaid.
• Among the Black Founders Fund’s latest cohort are the entrepreneurs running Aurign, an accounting and royalty distribution company; CashEx, a no-fee currency exchange business; Gainvest, an investment services firm; and Kiddie Kredit, a mobile chore tracking app venture that educates children about credit, according to an announcement emailed to Payments Dive.
• The founders each receive $100,000 in cash funding, $100,000 in credits for Google’s cloud computing services, assistance from Google employees and business coaching for free, plus access to mental health services, per the announcement from Alphabet-owned Google.

Dive Insight:

The program for Black founders is separate from Alphabet’s 2020 commitment to invest $100 million in Black-led venture capital firms, startups and organizations that support them. Among those capital recipients is Serena Ventures, the venture capital firm founded by tennis champion Serena Williams.

Google said in its blog post that it will announce more participants for its Google for Startups Accelerator: Black Founders this fall. It also will gather its Georgia-based Black Founders Fund recipients, investors and partners in Atlanta to connect with one another later this year, per the company blog post.

The spokesperson couldn’t immediately provide details about the investments made in the prior two cohorts.

“We’ve seen firsthand how this powerful combination of financial support with mentorship, training, mental health coaching and community contributes to helping fuel innovation, wealth generation and equal access to economic opportunity,” Jewel Burks Solomon, head of Google for Startups U.S., and Jeremiah Gordon, general counsel at Alphabet’s growth equity fund CapitalG, wrote in the announcement. “And we will continue to find opportunities to support these incredible Black founders and funders.” 

Google joins other tech giants like PayPal in supporting venture capitalists of color. Last year, that payments pioneer announced plans to invest $50 million into 11 Black and Latinx venture capital funds. The following month, it also deposited $135 million into financial institutions and management funds that serve communities of color.

So far, Google has invested $30 million since 2020 in companies founded by Black entrepreneurs in the U.S., Brazil, Europe and Africa, but the company won’t take equity in any of the participating startups.

Google’s investment in entrepreneurs of color in the fintech space comes as investments in fintech firms have slowed on the uncertain economic outlook and stock market volatility. A PitchBook analysis released last month reported that the funding raised in Q2 2022 by payment startups dropped 18.7% to $7.59 billion, from $9.34 billion in Q1 2022.