Blog

Some snapshots of my presentation to Northwestern Mutual earlier this month. Always love the opportunity to highlight @BumpGlobal and share insight into our value prop! Thanks for having me, @NM_Financial

 

Looking back on last week’s event, we’re still buzzing with excitement! Last week we hosted our first Creator dinner “Network & Nosh”   It was incredible to see so many talented creators come together, connect, and share their journeys. We loved introducing some of the Bump team and seeing meaningful conversations spark. Here’s to building even stronger networks and growing together. 

Do you see AI as a threat or ally to the creator economy? “Personally I have found some incredible AI tools that have never replaced someone but only made mine and my teams jobs easier.” – @laurDIY

A reminder that creative tools can work with you & not against you.

 

Shoutout to MIT for hosting R.I.S.E. – Empowering #Entrepreneurs of Color last week! It was an honor to speak with other industry innovators about the #growth of the #CreatorEconomy. Huge thank you to Princess, Allan, & James for the insightful conversation on scaling & funding.

Silicon Valley has always been considered one of the most prominent tech hubs in the world. The Bay Area is still the most significant tech epicenter globally and the only ecosystem to reach above $4 billion deal value in 2023 Q4.

However, as LinkedIn’s founder Reid Hoffman once said, “Silicon Valley is a mindset, not a location.” Outside the disruptive ecosystem in the Valley, there are thriving technology sectors all across the U.S. Other hubs like Miami, New York, Seattle, Chicago, and Atlanta are rapidly growing.

So, for example, New York-based AI data security startup Cyera raised one of the biggest rounds in 2024, securing a $300M raise at a $1.4B valuation. Seattle-based ExtraHop, a network detection and response startup, closed $100 million in growth capital from undisclosed existing investors. Finally, Atlanta-based Calendly raised $350 million from various investors, including OpenView Venture Partners. So, there are a ton of startups based outside Silicon Valley that are making waves.

In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the remote working culture and showed entrepreneurs that they can operate from anywhere in the world and still have access to top tech talents.

In this article, UrbanGeekz spotlights 10 Black-owned, non-Silicon Valley-based startups that have caught the eye of investors. These companies span diverse industries and showcase the thriving tech landscape and its potential for further growth. From innovative FinTech solutions to groundbreaking health innovations, these startups are poised to significantly impact their respective industries.

We asked VCs from MaC Venture Capital, Symphonic Capital, Zeal Capital Partners, and Techstars Washington DC to find out.

Marlon Nichols, Managing General Partner at MaC Venture Capital

MaC Venture Capital is a seed-stage venture capital firm.

Mansa

Mansa is a free ad-supported streaming service and content aggregator that curates Black cultural content. The Los Angeles-based platform offers a wide variety of content, from on-demand titles and digital linear (FAST) channels to short-form videos and user-generated content. The Black-owned streaming service was founded by actors David Oyelowo, Chiké Okonkwo, Nate Parker, and tech entrepreneur Zak Tanjeloff.

Mahmee

Mahmee is a maternal healthcare company on a mission to make the US the best place in the world to give birth. The platform offers an all-inclusive care experience to expecting and new parents, health systems, and payers. Mahmee’s Membership gives each patient their own care team of nurses, lactation consultants, doulas, mental health coaches, nutritionists, and care coordinators—available seven days a week, virtually, and in Mahmee clinics. Melissa Hana founded the Black-owned Los Angeles platform in 2014.

Sydney Paige Thomas, Founding General Partner at Symphonic Capital

Symphonic Capital is a Pre-Seed Venture Capital fund

Bump

Bump is an AI-powered analytics-driven platform enabling the fast-growing creator community to take charge of their business success. The startup enables creators across YouTube, Instagram, Spotify, and TikTok to discover and track all income sources and manage their market value to grow their digital assets, businesses, and wealth. Bump’s vision is to be the neobank for 1.2 billion creators worldwide. The Los Angeles-based startup was founded by James Jones in 2021.

Scout

Scout helps student-athletes leverage financial decision-making and planning for long-term prosperity during and beyond their playing careers. The startup uses educational sessions and an app designed for athletes by athletes to keep players motivated to make the right choices. The Techstars-backed startup was founded by Michael Haddix Jr. in 2021. Scout is currently based in New York.

Marti Health

Marti Health is a healthcare company that focuses on comprehensive care management and advocates for health equity, particularly for underserved communities. The company offers personalized care plans and clinical care services specifically tailored to manage and alleviate symptoms of sickle cell disease. Marti Health was founded by Michael Smith in 2022 and is based in Atlanta, Georgia.

Richard Odior, Principal Partner at Zeal Capital Partners

Zeal Capital Partners is a leading venture capital firm partnering with founders building high-growth, early-stage businesses across the financial technology, employment pathways, and health equity verticals.

Muse

Muse enables financial platforms to offer financial analytics and tax insights through an AI-based, easy-to-implement API. Founded in February 2022 by CPAs Colin Horsford and Busayo Ogunsanya, Muse uses artificial intelligence (AI) to navigate the complex and ever-evolving world of tax codes. The platform is based in New York.

GigEasy

GigEasy is an insurance platform designed to offer flexible coverage options for individuals and businesses in the gig economy. The company’s platform features health, dental, and vision plans, including on-demand coverage activation, affordable pricing, and an API for businesses to integrate insurance directly into their platforms. The insurtech startup was founded by Ridwan Lawal in 2022 and is based in Houston, Texas.

Adam H. Phillips, Managing Director – Techstars Washington DC

As a Managing Director at Techstars, Adam leads the Equitech Accelerator and the Washington DC Accelerator, powered by JP Morgan.

TechRow

TechRow is an educational media platform that delivers a premium portfolio of VR and cinematic content in the education and training sectors. Known as the Enterprise Netflix for learning, the company delivers award-winning movies, series, documentaries, and VR experiences that engage learners in world-class learning. TechRow, based in New York, was founded by Travis Feldler in 2020.

LunchTable

LunchTable, powered by Inphlu, is the first fan activation and engagement platform designed to mobilize your fans into digital brand ambassadors that boost your brand, marketing, and sales efforts. With LunchTable, brands can connect, engage, and mobilize fans from a centralized technology hub. Joshua Reid founded the Ohio-based platform in 2020.

Lokum

Lokum is a cutting-edge platform revolutionizing how healthcare providers and patients connect and interact. As an innovative healthcare startup, Lokum offers a range of services and features designed to streamline the healthcare experience for anesthetists. The App is a matchmaking platform linking Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs/nurse anesthesiologists) with healthcare facilities and anesthesia groups nationwide. Based in Houston, Texas, the platform was founded by Joy Ademuyewo in 2020.

 

Original Article

James Jones Sr. and his family spent their days packed into a VW bug. Parents in front, three kids in the back seat, and a U-Haul full of perfectly organized musical equipment hitched behind them as they traveled to Jones’ gigs as a gospel musician at churches along the East Coast.

James Jones Jr. was 9 when the road trips started, happy to squeeze in back as his talented dad kept getting booked. But he would overhear his parents worrying about collecting money in a timely fashion from the churches that hired him. Without a way to track revenue, it was hard to keep tabs on which organizations, venues and promoters owed his father payments.

An observant, precocious kid, Jones Jr. wanted to solve his parents’ problem, a desire that laid the foundation for his entire career. He became an entertainment lawyer to ensure that artists like his father received the compensation they deserved.

James Jones Jr., left, with his parents and younger brother. The family traveled to churches up and down the East Coast, where James Jones Sr., a musician, performed —  but he often struggled to get paid . (Photo courtesy of James Jones Jr.)

Over the course of his 10-year law career, Jones watched carefully as digital technology displaced entertainment’s traditional business model, which gave way to the creator economy.

The creator economy is a booming industry. The emerging creator class encapsulates far more than its front-facing influencers — it includes entrepreneurs, artists, consultants, gamers, life coaches and freelancers who are turning their passion and skills into multiple profitable business streams — on their own terms. Creators generate more than $100 billion for the global economy, and in North America alone, some 22 million people identify as creators: 82% of millennials and Gen Zers say they are creators or aspire to the job, according to a recent Mastercard report.

And it is a job. “A lot of creators we work with are business-minded,” Jones says. “They’re focused on being independent, getting away from signing with labels and no longer signing unfair deals.”

Nevertheless, Jones realized that independent creators still struggle to grow their businesses. Labels and management companies traditionally provided tools and funding for creation, growth and support. Now creators must figure out how to do it on their own.

To help artistic types gain their financial footing, he and co-founder Trudy Kirabo launched the startup Bump in 2020. “We designed it to educate creators on the business of being a musician or a content creator,” he explains.

But as Jones and Kirabo began gathering feedback from creators, they learned that customers did not want a master class in the entertainment business. Instead they were drawn to Bump’s analytics on income streams, follower count and revenue projections. Like Jones Sr. all those years ago, creators needed the ability to track their revenue from different sources and gain access to funding.

In 2021, they expanded Bump as a digital financial services platform that helps independent artists like Jones’ dad earn and track their daily bread. Through Bump, creators can link their accounts from all income sources — from royalties and publishing rights to the sales of physical merchandise and NFTs — and manage their financial performance from their personalized dashboard. With all this information on hand, creators can have accurate knowledge of their assets and how to build and optimize their creative brands.

“We built this entire system and platform on helping creators understand the value not only of their individual content but also of their entire portfolio,” Jones says.

Since then, the business has continued to grow, raising $1.5 million in new funding with help from Mastercard. Bump also joined Mastercard’s Start Path In Solidarity program, designed to invest in and support founders from underrepresented communities. Bump’s membership in In Solidarity led to a partnership with Mastercard and Highnote, a cloud-native modern card issuance platform, on the Bump Creator Card, launched late last year. Creators can use this product like a charge card — with Bump using the artist’s portfolio to establish realistic credit limits — to get micro advances to help grow their business while retaining their creative independence.

“We have a lot of creators that are very talented, and their only ask is to have the financial tools to realize their talent.” And, just like the little boy jammed into his parents’ Beetle, Jones is ready to help.

Original Article

Bump, an all-in-one financial services platform with tools that help creators better track and manage their money, today announced it is working with Highnote, a fully cloud-native modern card issuance and program management platform, and Mastercard to introduce the Bump Creator Card. The Bump Creator Card, in partnership with Highnote and powered exclusively by the Mastercard network, eliminates financial barriers that millions of independent creators – musicians, content creators, influencers, and more – face and empowers them with the resources they need to build successful businesses and brands.

The global creator economy has greatly expanded over recent years and is believed to include approximately 200 million creators. This rapid growth has uncovered the need for creators to use a solution like Bump to receive access to tailored financial services that can support, monitor and track how much money they make from assets like royalties and publishing rights, as well as discover all sources of income so that creators have a true understanding of how much money they are making. With a multitude of ways to earn income outside of the traditional W2, creators need a new solution to access credit and financial tools that can help them expand their businesses.

“Creators’ finances are often misunderstood and as a result, they are unable to access the same financial tools as salaried professionals or other small and medium sized businesses,” said James Jones Jr., Co-Founder and CEO of Bump. “Bump uses its proprietary income discovery technology to find all sources of income for creators and to predict a creator’s future income. We do this with creators’ best interest in mind so that they don’t need to worry about the loss of ownership of their royalties, catalog, master recordings, or publishing rights. Highnote’s industry-leading issuer-processor capabilities, coupled with Mastercard’s commitment to supporting startups through innovative and differentiated payments technology, leaves Bump well-positioned to scale and grow for mutually beneficial long-term success.”

The Bump Creator Card provides creators with the following benefits:

• No Monthly Fees: With the Bump Creator Card, creators are only responsible for paying their outstanding balance, a one-time initial setup fee, and the nominal annual fee
• No Credit Checks: Creators do not need to present their credit score in order to obtain a Bump Creator Card
• Web3 Asset Consideration: When determining credit limits for creators receiving the Bump Creator Card, Bump accounts for non-traditional financial assets, including Web3 assets like cryptocurrencies and NFTs
• Advanced Security Features: The Bump Creator Card is contactless and features Mastercard ID Theft Protection™ and Zero Liability Protection to detect fraud and protect cardholders from unauthorized transactions

Bump worked with Highnote to provide the card issuance infrastructure and program management capabilities that allow Bump to build a differentiated card solution that is customized for the creator economy. With Highnote’s all-in-one platform making the hardest parts of card issuance easy to manage, Bump can better focus on providing creators with the best solutions to grow their businesses.

“This keystone partnership amplifies Highnote’s commitment to building innovative payment solutions tailored to an under-served emerging community, the creator economy,” said John Macllwaine, Co-Founder and CEO at Highnote. “The Bump Creator Card demonstrates Highnote’s best-in-breed commercial credit card issuance capabilities that include features such as wallet tokenization, credit limit setting, billing cycle tracking, and scheduled repayments. We are the partner of choice for innovative digital enterprises that want to embed financial services into their digital product roadmap to drive value, financial access, and engagement for their users.”

The launch of the Bump Creator Card marks an expanded relationship between Bump and Mastercard. In 2021, Bump joined Mastercard’s Start Path program dedicated to supporting traditionally underrepresented fintech founders as a part of the company’s In Solidarity commitment of $500 million in products, services, technology and financial support to help close the racial wealth and opportunity gap. The program offers stage-relevant support, including mentorship and coaching, as well as curated commercial and investor introductions.

As the exclusive network, Mastercard will work closely with Bump to provide differentiated payments technology to support the creator economy.

“Creators are harnessing the power and potential of digital and influencing the world around us. As a result, they need smarter, more efficient payments products and solutions to help them manage and navigate their often complex financial lives,” said Sherri Haymond, executive vice president, Digital Partnerships at Mastercard. “Bump’s focus on this burgeoning segment is critical as we continue to build and uplift the digital economy, and we’re proud to extend our work to deliver a game-changing product for creators small and large.”

pymnts.com

With the global creator economy expanding, financial services platform Bump has teamed up with Mastercard and card issuer Highnote to launch the Bump Creator Card.

The card, announced Wednesday (Nov. 16), is designed to break down financial barriers facing independent creators face while helping them build brands and businesses.

“The global creator economy has expanded over recent years and is believed to include approximately 200 million creators,” Bump said in a news release.

“This rapid growth has uncovered the need for creators to use a solution like Bump to receive access to tailored financial services that can support, monitor and track how much money they make from assets like royalties and publishing rights, as well as discover all sources of income so that creators have a true understanding of how much money they are making.”

James Jones Jr., Bump’s co-founder and CEO, said the company uses a proprietary income discovery technology to find all sources of income for creators and predict future income.

“We do this with creators’ best interest in mind so that they don’t need to worry about the loss of ownership of their royalties, catalog, master recordings, or publishing rights,” he added.

The launch comes as social media platforms are increasingly relying on creators to drive eCommerce. Last week YouTube launched its “From YouTube to You” project, which includes a series of videos, live streams and Shorts featuring popular creators who curate gift recommendations and exclusive product drops and deals.

Earlier this year, the platform said it has paid out more than $30 billion to various creators in the past three years.

This week American Express teamed up with TikTok for the “#ShopSmall Accelerator,” a program to help small businesses reach the Gen Z users who flock to TikTok’s platform.

The program allows business owners to hear from TikTok lifestyle creators and business owners on how they can use the social media platform as a search engine, improve user engagement and tap into trends, hashtags and communities.

 

With more than $30 billion being paid out to creators each year, our primary focus has been to provide creators with innovative financial tools so that they can continue to share their creative genius with the world uninterrupted. This is why we are excited to announce that we have partnered with Mastercard and Highnote to launch the Bump Creator Card for cashless micro-advances to creators! The Creator Card pairs with Bump’s proprietary income discovery technology to allow creators to leverage their payouts to access Bump’s financial and Web3 products. Special thanks to creators, the Bump, Highnote, and Mastercard teams, and our supporters for helping us make the creator economy more efficient for hard-working creators worldwide.