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A venture capital firm supporting Black tech companies has closed its second fund. BKR Capital Led by Managing Partner Lise Birikundavyi, alongside co-founder Isaac Olowolafe, Toronto-based BKR Capital invests in technology or technology-enabled startups. According to the firm’s website, they target companies with diverse teams that have at least one Black founder and are at the pre-seed to seed stage. The firm primarily focuses on companies based in Canada, though up to 10% of its portfolio may be global. “We need to keep innovation at home,” Birikundavyi explained, according to The Globe and Mail. “We all want a Canada that is strong economically – where our children can grow up and have everything they need.” Fund II Details BKR Capital has raised $20 million for its second fund, aiming to reach $50 million by the end of 2026, per The Globe and Mail. The raise was supported by Royal Bank of Canada, Business Development Bank of Canada, Export Development Canada, and others,...
Uncle Nearest’s receiver seeks to bar its founders from speaking publicly about the brand’s ongoing case. In a new update shared by The Lynchburg Times, receiver Phillip G. Young Jr. requested that a federal judge issue a gag order that would prevent Fawn Weaver, Keith Weaver, and their related entity Grant Sidney from publicly discussing the receivership on social media or with employees, vendors, creditors, shareholders, investors, and distributors. This request was made in a filing on Monday, March 23, notes the outlet. The request comes after Fawn took to Instagram to announce that “the receivership has ended” and “the reorganization has begun.” The post coincided with a press release stating that Uncle Nearest was filing a lawsuit against its lender, Farm Credit Mid-America, in the New York Supreme Court for a smear campaign that made false claims of missing inventory, financial misconduct, negative cash flow, and insolvency. The receivership was put in place in August 2025...
Dr. Ashton Sellers has taken over a longstanding animal hospital and made history in the process. Hickman Mills Animal Hospital was opened in 1957 by Dr. L.W. Williams, per the organization’s website. Now, Sellers becomes its third owner and also leads as the head veterinarian, according to Fox4. “Once you move into ownership, it’s just a whole different ballgame because now it’s you,” Sellers told the outlet. “From the minute somebody walks in the door, it’s your business, your staff; these are your patients, and that just comes with a different mindset that you have to have.” This was a long-held dream of Sellers, who aspired for ownership when she was young, her mother, Susan Weaver, told the outlet. “She’s always excelled; she’s always achieved and always had goals, and she’s always been determined to accomplish her goals,” Weaver said. Making History Sellers also makes history in her new role. She is the first Black woman in Kansas City to own an animal hospital and the...
Jasmine Johnson is behind a historic cannabis ecosystem in Florida. Johnson, who has a background in property management, real estate, and asset management, has embraced a business-driven mindset shaped by Miami, where she was born, and her upbringing in a family that builds and runs their own ventures. As a child, Johnson witnessed and participated in the early stages of her parents’ entrepreneurial journey in real estate, property management, and asset management, which included her mother’s acquisition of a brokerage called Frank K. Cooper Real Estate. Her parents went on to acquire and finance a 44-property portfolio they managed, and Johnson began working there day-to-day from elementary school through high school taking calls or joining her mother to collect rent, she shared in an interview with AFROTECH™. GŪD ESSENCE Today, Johnson, a Florida International University graduate, manages 25% of her family’s portfolio through Johnson Property Management Services (JPMS), which...
A judge has blocked Fawn Weaver’s bankruptcy petitions, according to The Tennessean. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, court-appointed receiver Phillip G. Young Jr. oversees the whiskey brand’s assets, including real estate holdings , intellectual property, affiliated ventures, and related entities. Weaver took to Instagram on March 17 and announced, “The receivership of Uncle Nearest is done.” The receivership had been in place since August 2025 after the company allegedly defaulted on more than $108 million in loans to its lender, Farm Credit Mid-America. “If you’ve been reading the headlines lately, you probably thought that wasn’t possible, but rest assured it always was, and it is,” Fawn said in the video. “I’m so grateful to God for our leadership team, who kept their heads down and kept working.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Fawn Weaver (@fawn.weaver) Simultaneously, Fawn, Keith, and her investment holding company, Grant Sidney, filed a lawsuit against...
Aasiyah Abdulsalam is leveraging robotics to solve pain points in the wig industry. The London native, raised in Ireland by parents from Nigeria, developed scalp psoriasis at 12 years old, according to Inc. She began wearing wigs because she was losing hair “ excessively, ” she said. By default, she became acquainted with hair brokers, stylists, and specialty product manufacturers. They were useful when she was creating her own wigs or getting them installed, the outlet notes. When she became a student at the University of Leicester, her fascination for the wig industry grew. She even moved to South Korea to work at a wig factory for six months to support her dissertation, which centered on studying the “manufacturing geopolitical ties” of a consumer product. “I became obsessed,” Abdulsalam explained to Inc. The Wig Fix The dissertation’s outcome later inspired the creation of The Wig Fix in 2020, a transparent, patented, hypoallergenic silicone wig grip that can secure a wig with...
Sanctions have been brought forward against Uncle Nearest founder Fawn Weaver. On Tuesday, March 17, Weaver took to Instagram to share a video that opened with her saying “the receivership of Uncle Nearest is done.” As AFROTECH™ previously reported, the whiskey brand founded by Weaver and her husband, Keith, had entered into a receivership after defaulting on more than $108 million in loans to its lender, Farm Credit Mid-America. Tennessee attorney Phillip G. Young Jr. is the court-appointed receiver as of August 2025, which permitted him to oversee Uncle Nearest’s assets, including its distillery in Shelbyville, TN, as well as “real estate holdings, intellectual property, affiliated ventures, and related entities,” AFROTECH™ noted. Young also attempted to sell the Weavers’ Martha’s Vineyard property, though the sale was placed on hold by a federal judge until appraisals, notice, and a hearing are completed, the Moore County Observer reports. After months under a receivership that...
Courtney Adeleye is making history during Women’s History Month. The Mane Choice The former registered nurse has become a serial entrepreneur, finding success in the haircare space. In 2013, she founded The Mane Choice, a natural haircare brand she believed addressed a market gap. “There were not many brands that used natural ingredients and specialized in healthy hair growth at the same time,” Adeleye told Entrepreneur . “So, I started mixing my own products at home and infused them with vitamins, nutrients, and healthy ingredients.” Adeleye also went online to discuss her haircare journey, which led to interest from viewers who wanted to purchase her products. She used $500 from her savings to create deep conditioning treatments, and within three years of operating from her home, she generated $10 million in sales, as AFROTECH™ previously reported. Acquisition By 2019, the venture, which carries shampoos, conditioners, and hair growth vitamins, had generated $100 million in sales,...
Sienna Wings is having complications with obtaining its signage. As AFROTECH™ previously told you, Sienna Wings was founded by 22-year-old Tyla-Simone Crayton and her mother, Monique. At 14, she officially launched the company and began selling wing plates with a signature sauce from her home, and made $50,000 in revenue, according to an Instagram video. It wasn’t until 2019 that she began manufacturing three flavors, Sweet & Tangy, Lemon Pepper, and Spice It Up!, per the company’s website. In 2021, Crayton brought her signature sauces to “Shark Tank.” She landed a $100,000 deal with jewelry designer Kendra Scott on the show for a product line called Sienna Sauce. However, she had not received payment two years later as she was reportedly still working on due diligence for Scott’s team, according to a separate AFROTECH™ article. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sauce Boss™ (@tylasimonecrayton) Fortunately, that didn’t deter Crayton from her journey in...
Wally Sajimi has built a solid reputation as a creative strategist, innovator, and tech founder whose work sits at the intersection of fashion, culture, and experimental technology. As the co-founder of Nietzsche Labs, a New York-based venture studio built on experimentation and the pursuit of unconventional ventures that often emerge from unexpected places, Sajimi believes in challenging the status quo — even when the end result isn’t clear early on, he shared with AFROTECH™. Inspired by his time reading Friedrich Nietzsche, the studio serves as a growing umbrella for ideas, projects, and investments across multiple disciplines. For Sajimi, it’s about fluency, not dilution. How Nietzsche Labs Came To Be “I spent time at the intersection of music, fashion, and technology — watching trends get identified, monetized, and commodified by people who didn’t originate them. I wanted to build something that moved differently,” Sajimi told AFROTECH™, reflecting on how Nietzsche Labs came to...
Dr. Abi Oladele has launched a science-backed oral brand that prioritizes health over aesthetics. The first-generation Nigerian American was raised in Trenton, NJ, with high expectations on her to succeed, which she internalized as her parents’ desire to ensure their sacrifices weren’t in vain. And they certainly weren’t, she told AFROTECH™. While her father wanted her to become an orthopedic surgeon, she chose to become a dentist. This career would also allow her to marry her interests in the arts, including drawing and sculpting, she shared. “After learning more about exactly what dentistry entails, it’s definitely a mixture of art. It’s definitely a mixture of science and using my hands,” Dr. Oladele told AFROTECH™. “And because I loved using my hands and designing, crafting all those different things, I was like, ‘I can choose a career where it would be accepted by my family and my parents and would actually change people’s lives.'” She attended Howard University, earning a...
Ex-MIT and Stanford engineer KJ Hardrict is changing the interview process for job seekers. Hardrict’s background spans engineering, venture capital, and content. He has worked at Link Ventures as a principal and served as a founding engineer and a senior engineer for various startups, according to his LinkedIn profile. Hardrict has also gained more than 115,000 YouTube subscribers. It’s the variety of his experience that has given him a front seat to the hiring process, Hardrict acknowledged to AFROTECH™. “As an engineer and startup operator, I saw how often incredible people were filtered out before anyone spoke to them. As an investor, I saw founders struggling to identify key talent in a sea of resumes,” he said. Hardrict also considered his own experience in the job market and noticed that being seen, not just read about, set him up for success. “Recruiters would watch my videos on YouTube, and within a few minutes, they understood who I was and how I thought. That made me...
An investment from Jay-Z is being put into question in the latest legal filing surrounding Uncle Nearest. The whiskey brand launched by Fawn Weaver and her husband, Keith, is under receivership after defaulting on more than $108 million in loans from Farm Credit Mid-America, as AFROTECH™ previously reported. The receivership encompasses Uncle Nearest’s Shelbyville , TN distillery , real estate holdings, intellectual property, affiliated ventures, and related entities. Court-appointed receiver Phillip Young Jr. claims Uncle Nearest has nearly $200 million in debt and is insolvent. He is also seeking full transparency into the brand’s financial records, including a $20 million loan from Jay-Z’s venture capital firm, MarcyPen, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader. Farm Credit’s filing states it was informed by Weaver that the $20 million was a loan from Grant Sidney, yet it claims the money actually came from MP-Tenn LLC, otherwise known as MarcyPen. Grant Sidney is the largest...
Meghan Markle’s As Ever brand is now fully independent, according to Deadline. The Duchess of Sussex launched As Ever to reflect her passion for cooking, entertaining, and hosting, according to the brand’s website. She shared she had been making jams, preserves, and fruits spreads for loved ones, and the feedback inspired her to take her idea beyond her kitchen and into others’ homes. “I asked myself, ‘What would it take to scale my fruit spreads into something I could share more broadly? Could I adapt my recipe into something that could bring more people that feeling of joy? And what else could I add to this collection to spark a smile, to make your day a bit easier, to elevate your everyday,'” she expressed on the company website. As Ever sells jams in flavors such as raspberry, orange marmalade, and strawberry, as well as California-harvested honey, teas in various blends, and more. Its launch was on April 2, 2025, according to Marie Claire. The brand was supported by Netflix,...
The judge-appointed receiver of Uncle Nearest claims that Fawn Weaver is trying to sway public opinion. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, Judge Charles E. Atchley Jr. will soon determine if the receivership will be expanded to include 4 Front Street LLC, Grant Sidney Inc., Humble Baron Inc., Nashwood Inc., Quill & Cask Owner LLC, Shelbyville Barrel House BBQ LLC, and Shelbyville Grand LLC — as requested by receiver Phillip Young Jr. — or be terminated, as requested by Fawn and her husband Keith. Weaver, the CEO and founder of the whiskey brand, added “Follow The Case” to FawnWeaver.com, reports the Lexington Herald-Leader. In a March 5 filing, Young argued that this move contradicts Judge Atchley’s order warning against trying the case in public, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader . “It has become clear that [Fawn Weaver’s filing last week] was intended for social media consumption, not to guide this Court in making its decision. This past week, Fawn Weaver has openly, and in...