BLCK VC & Upfront Ventures Partner With Black Women Talk Tech for the 6th Annual ‘Road to Map Billions’ Conference

Andrea Donkor (PayPal) Joins the Speaker Lineup Taking the Mainstage on Day One

NEW YORK– Black Women Talk Tech is pleased to announce BLCK VC & Upfront Ventures as  supporting organizations of the 2022 6th Annual Roadmap to Billions Conference taking place June 15-17 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in Brooklyn, New York. This year will be hybrid, allowing attendees the option to meet in person or virtually with investors, founders, and other tech professionals.

Roadmap to Billions is the largest tech gathering for Black and Brown women in the world, bringing together over 2,000 founders, created exclusively by Black women tech founders for female, female identifying, and nonbinary founders and allies.

Aligning with these two organizations will help bring forth the main goal of the conference, which is to educate, empower, and allocate crucial funding dollars to Black female founders/women entrepreneurs, as well as to upskill and connect Black tech executives with Fortune 500 companies to secure their next tech role.

“Upfront Ventures and BLCK VC completely understand the importance of planting seeds in startup companies and presenting them with the proper tools to help them grow,” says Esosa Ighodaro-Johnson, co-founder and CMO of Black Women Talk Tech. “Both organizations also acknowledge the brilliance, tenacity, and resilience that Black women bring to the table with ideas that are labored from both the head and the heart. We couldn’t be more excited to have them on board this year and for attendees to get the chance to meet with them.”

Upfront Ventures will lead the investor roundtable “Are You Ready to Fundraise?”, as well as host a fireside chat with Isoken Igbinedionof Parfait entitled “Me and My Investor: A Startup Story”.

“It is no secret how few venture capital dollars have deployed into companies led by Black women. Not only does this limit the access to transformative funding sources, but also perpetuates the wealth gap in the United States,” says Kobie Fuller, Partner at Upfront Ventures. “BWTT serves as a lightning rod to bring together VCs, entrepreneurs and professionals committed to demystifying the space and changing the narrative. We are thrilled to work with the organizers of this conference and find pathways to meaningful partnership and opportunities for founders.”

BLCK VC will host a panel titled “How We Break into Venture’,’ discussing venture capital as an asset class that is a largely untapped opportunity for the Black community. However, being a VC isn’t the only way for Black women to break into venture. The panel will dive into all the ways Black women can begin investing in venture.

“All the data we currently have around Black women in venture seems to tell us only that we are very good at doing more with less, which seems more like a back-handed compliment than an important indicator of our boundlessness. The immense talent and brilliance at Road to Billions and galvanized by BWTT is the antidote to any messaging indicating otherwise. For anyone not attuned to the innovation and investment opportunities that result from the connections made at Road to Billions is simply missing out. We at BLCK VC are over the moon to be able to amplify more and more founders and investors in partnership with BWTT.”

In addition to the partnerships, Andrea Donkor, Senior Vice President, Regulatory and Consumer Compliance, will host a noteworthy workshop on the Mainstage during Day One of the conference. Andrea leads PayPal’s compliance function, the development and oversight of PayPal’s regulatory strategy and the company’s programs relating to fair access and equitable treatment of PayPal’s customers. Andrea also serves on the steering committee for Amplify, PayPal’s community group for Black employees and allies. She proudly serves on the board of the New York Urban League and received a B.A. from New York University and a J.D. / L.L.M. from Cornell Law School.

To register for the conference, visit www.blackwomentalktech.com.

To learn more about BLCK VC, visit www.blckvc.org.