MEET THE BLACK WOMAN CEO WHO JUST RAISED $35 MILLION IN VENTURE FUNDING

One of the top-funded Black woman founders in tech, Sevetri Wilson, just raised $35 million in a Series B venture funding round, Forbes reports. 

Venture Capital funding is finally improving for Black business owners. Take Terri Burns, the youngest and first Black woman to partner with Google’s venture capital firm, or Julia Collins, the first Black woman to co-found a company valued over $1 billion. 

Black-led venture capital teams are forming to keep the Black dollar circulating in the Black community. Venture Capital firms such as Jumpstart Health Investors raised $55 million for Black healthcare entrepreneurs; Serena Williams’ firm Serena Ventures raised $111 million to invest in diverse founders, and Harlem Capital Partners is also a minority-owned firm that invests in diverse entrepreneurs. Thanks to more funding, Black entrepreneurs are now able to upscale their businesses; Joanna Smith raised $12.1 million in venture capital for her edtech company created to curb chronic absenteeism in K-12 schools, Tope Awotona raised $350 million for his scheduling app, Calendly, while Nigerian ed-tech startup, Ulesson,raised $7.5 million in Series A funding.  

Now serial entrepreneur, tech founder, author, speaker, and wealth generator Sevetri Wilson is up next! Growing up with three siblings and a single mother in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Wilson knew she would have to work hard to make college possible. With the help of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation scholarship, she was able to attend Louisiana State University on a full ride. While attending a retreat for the foundation, she became interested in philanthropy so that’s what she decided to pursue. After graduating, she worked as a consultant for nonprofits for eight years. Wilson wanted to productize and scale services such as employee training, board management, and donor reporting with technology. In 2017, Wilson founded software startup, Resilia, selling software that helps nonprofit organizations manage their operations. Her ultimate goal is to “modernize philanthropy for nonprofits and funders.”

Wilson recently raised $35 million in a Series B venture funding round co-led by Panoramic Ventures and Framework Venture Partners and included participation from Mucker Capital, SoftBank Group’s SB Opportunity Fund, Goldman Sachs Asset Management Fund, and Chloe Capital. Since Resilia’s inception, the venture has raised nearly $50 million. This recent funding will go down in history as the largest raise ever for a solo black woman-founded tech company. 

Managing partner at Panoramic Ventures Paul Judge, who invested $11 million in the round, stated, “She’s been on a decade-long journey of impacting this world of nonprofits. When you uncover a problem that exists that other people have overlooked, and you’ve decided to make it part of your life’s work to be excellent at that, that’s what we’ve seen with Resilia.”

William Hsu, a partner at Mucker Capital said, “We spotted Resilia early on, and have been impressed with Sevetri’s leadership and her team’s ability to identify market needs, move quickly, and expand their products to serve the complex needs of grantors and grantees.”

As a woman with no tech background and no co-founders, Wilson is showing young people everywhere that Black women can excel no matter the odds. With the new funds, the company plans to fill out the executive suite and will also allow Resilia to scale. 

Wilson told AfroTech, “I’ve grown tremendously as a founder. I’ve settled into my role as a leader of a scaling company and every day I think about how I can become the best version of myself personally and professionally. There’s also more pressure but I’ve learned that this is part of growing a company especially when investors have put a significant amount of money and ‘faith’ behind you.”

“Furthermore, I’m more inclined to focus on what truly matters and not get so buried in the things that don’t,” she continued. “It’s my full plan to take this mindset into the new year and beyond. As you grow and scale your business, there’s an entirely new language you have to learn.”

Congratulations, Sevetri!