Social Impact Program

Tech For Black Founders

Applications to reopen early 2023.

Today, only 1.2% of founders backed by venture capital in the United States are Black. That figure is appalling and speaks to the ways in which the odds are stacked against Black technologists and entrepreneurs. The onus is on us in the tech community to radically change our industry.

In an effort to provide concrete, long-lasting support, Braze along with Alloy partners Amplitude, Branch, mParticle, and Radar launched Tech for Black Founders in June 2020. Through this initiative, companies are making it simple for Black founders to accelerate their growth, increasing their chances at securing funding and building successful and sustainable businesses.

Since launching the program, Braze has provided 22 companies with free access to its comprehensive customer engagement platform, including 11 women-founded businesses and 5 businesses based in EMEA.

We’re excited to give more Black-founded businesses the opportunity to grow with Braze and will be launching a third call for applications in early 2023, with a goal of accepting 15 new qualified businesses to the program.

Braze is a comprehensive customer engagement platform that powers relevant and memorable experiences between consumers and the brands they love. Context underpins every Braze interaction, helping brands foster human connection with consumers.

Qualification Criteria:

Black Founder in the US or EMEA
Bootstrapped Business or less than $30M in Venture Funding
Under 100 Employees
Compatible SDK and appropriate Engineering/Marketing resources

What to Expect from Braze:

In addition to partner-provided solutions, Tech for Black Founder companies will receive access to the following:

A free Growth package for 12 months, with opportunity to renew at discounted rates pending business qualifications at time of renewal
Growth 6 onboarding services to get you up and running (live within 6 weeks unless customers also purchase SMS)
Unlimited Push Notifications, Webhooks, and In-App/In-Browser messaging for up to 250,000 Monthly Active Users
Email costs covered up to 10M emails and two IP addresses
1 Currents - Messaging Events integration
Access to our SDKs and APIs
Braze documentation and over 25 hours of educational marketing videos and content in Braze LABs
Access to Braze Bonfire, with a dedicated space to network with fellow Black founders in the program