In a bid to launch more black tech founders in Europe, last year Google for startups launched a $2m (£1.5m) grant fund to help tackle the fairly obvious and glaring racial inequality in Europe’s tech industry. That fund eventually doubled to $4m (£3m) and now 40 black-led tech startups across Europe will receive grants from the fund.

Each startup will receive $100,000 in non-dilutive cash rewards, up to $200,000 in cloud credits and ad support, mentorship from industry leaders, and connections within Google’s network.

Prior to the fund’s launch in 2021, less than 0.25% of venture capital (VC) funding had gone to black-led startups in the UK.

UK tech startups will make up two-thirds of the 40 companies shortlisted across Europe and are spread across beauty, fashion, education, construction and food/drink.

Marta Krupinska, Google’s Head of Startups UK: “For the second year in a row, we’ve been able to debunk the myth of the ‘pipeline problem’. Europe is home to a wealth of talent from underrepresented backgrounds – we’re delighted to doubling the fund from last year and partnering with 40 fantastic businesses, two-thirds of which are UK-based and one-third are women-led.

The full list is below (with descriptions provided by the startups themselves):

● Aline (Sweden): Lifelong Learning, quantified and validated for increased productivity in the information age.

● Automi AI (France): Automi allows manufacturers to automate more tasks than ever before. The platform uses ML to orchestrate mobile supercomputers that users connect to their workstations and train to perform repetitive tasks.

● Base Plus (UK): combining data, machine learning and formulation expertise to create precise and personalized skincare.
    
● Beazy (Germany): SaaS marketplace for content production

● Bloomful (UK): Providing a digital healthcare journey for beer gynecological health.

● Boxx (UK): Combining boxing-inspired fitness with smart technology to provide a fun and accessible way to train.

● Compare Ethics (UK): a sustainable product intelligence and compliance platform enabling companies to confidently manage, verify and communicate responsible product claims at scale.

● Deep Meta (UK): Predicting defects in metal production.

● Devo (UK): An end-to-end operating system enabling the digital transformation of convenience stores.

● Eccobell (UK): An ecosystem of on-demand web applications using contactless technology to innovate the way people access, communicate and interact with each other, without device restrictions.

● Ekie (France): Ekie facilitates access to legal services for employees in order to improve the essential balance between professional and personal life.

● Feniska (Germany): a Berlin-based Health-Tech sta-up that builds IoT products to help cat and dog owners track the health of their pets.

● FoodLama (United Kingdom): easy online shopping with preferences.

● Framework (UK): The world’s first on-demand business school, designed exclusively for startups.

● Fresh Afrika (France): Fresh Afrika is a Paris-based FoodTech company that uses blockchain technology to deliver a beer-based dining experience and connect smallholder farmers in Africa to the world.

● GigBridge (United Kingdom): a recruitment platform for construction companies to find and hire skilled construction workers.

● Goodloans (UK): AI-powered digital lending platform for emerging markets.

● Hyndr (Germany): The B2B marketplace for the hydrogen economy.

● ID Protect (France): ID Protect is 3D secure for identity documents, which is a game-changer in terms of preventing fraud and identity theft.

● Kuorum (Spain): SaaS for legal and secure online voting

● Lenkie (UK): Provides the integrated lending infrastructure to enable online platforms to become a source of funding for their business users.

● Liquisto (Germany): Liquisto is a data-driven digital solutions platform to sustainably transform excess industrial inventory into cash for manufacturers and new utility for end users of industrial equipment.

● Materials Nexus (UK): Accelerating the transition to net zero materials.

● MoonHub (UK): Visual Reality training platform.

● Nolea (UK): Addressing the mismatch between healthcare supply and demand with our split market platform for clinicians.

● Owni (UK): a B2B SaaS business that enables retailers and fashion brands to reap resale and aftermarket profits through a peer-to-peer resale platform

● Pace Revenue (UK): Providing real-time automated business intelligence and state-of-the-art BI to the hospitality industry.
                 
● Propel (Germany): Propel is building a multi-layered digital infrastructure to power the tech talent economy.
● Propelle (UK): a female-focused financial investment platform designed to inspire women to invest more regularly and build wealth.

● Reach Industries (UK): a platform that uses computer vision, voice and ML to accelerate life sciences in laboratories.

● Reframd (Germany): Inclusive eyewear products for a diverse world.

● Ruka (UK): Ruka’s vision is to become the definitive hair brand for black women globally, creating an ecosystem of hair solutions that really work.

● Sojo (UK): a sustainable fashion technology company centralizing and modernizing the garment repair and manufacturing industry.

● SympliFi (UK): A digital lending platform that facilitates access to credit for underserved micro and SMEs in developing countries, making lending borderless.

● Tinto (United Kingdom): a well-being application for pregnant and postnatal mothers.

● TRIM-IT (UK): the first app-powered mobile hair salons in the UK.

● VerifyMyAge (UK): Creates security technology solutions designed to make the internet safer by solving compliance and protection issues with age assurance, identity authentication and content moderation .

● Yuty (UK): A conscious beauty market driven by AI.

● Yvee (France): Yvee supports companies in the 3 main stages of a recruitment process: sourcing, skills screening and selection.

● Zest (Netherlands): Zest develops personalized, software-based lifestyle treatments to prevent, control and reverse chronic diseases such as diabetes without spending more on drugs.