- Google just launched a $2 million fund for Black tech startup founders in Europe.
- Black people remain woefully underrepresented in tech investor and startup circles.
- Google’s VP of startup partnerships said there was ‘a lot of work to do’ to improve representation.
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Google has unveiled a $2 million funding scheme for Black startup founders in Europe, in an attempt to combat the dire lack of representation across the technology sector.
According to Atomico’s most recent State of European Tech report, less than half a percent of venture capital money goes to Black founders on the continent, and less than 3% of European venture capitalists identify as Black.
Google has made its own pledges to improve diversity internally following criticism from employees, with CEO Sundar Pichai promising to improve representation of underrepresented groups in the company’s leadership by 30% by 2025.
Under the new initiative, Google for Startups will offer up to $100,000 in cash awards to selected European startups, as well as up to $220,000 per startup in credits to be spent on Google Ads and Cloud space.
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