Braze Launches Call for Applications to Nearly Double “Tech for Black Founders” Grants

By providing free technology, community, and mentorship, Braze aims to address social and fiscal inequity in the tech industry.

Braze, the comprehensive customer engagement platform that powers interactions between consumers and the brands they love, announced an open call for applications to its product grant through the Tech for Black Founders program. The grant will provide 15 recipients with a year of free Braze technology and resources to help Black founders and support their company’s early growth. Eligible and interested Black-led businesses in the U.S. and EMEA can apply here, starting today.

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“By enabling greater access to tech resources, Braze is committed to promoting diverse industry representation and opportunity. We’re proud of how the program has grown, and we look forward to further expanding our Tech for Black Founders community”

Tech for Black Founders is a first-of-its-kind collaboration established in June 2020 to support and invest in underrepresented entrepreneurs and technologists. Today, only 1% of founders backed by venture capital in the United States are Black. Braze co-founded this joint initiative in partnership with Amplitude, Branch, mParticle, and Radar to offer Black founders access to valuable technology to help scale their businesses. Since its inception, the network has grown to over 43 partners, including Airtable, AWS, Greenhouse, Notion, and Stripe.

“By enabling greater access to tech resources, Braze is committed to promoting diverse industry representation and opportunity. We’re proud of how the program has grown, and we look forward to further expanding our Tech for Black Founders community,” said Rod McLeod, VP of Social Impact at Braze. “As a technology leader, we will remain accountable for increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion in our industry and plan to further expand efforts supporting underserved and underrepresented communities in the year ahead.”

Last year, Braze provided grants to 16 Black-founded businesses in the U.S. For example, Plain Sight, a social platform dedicated to facilitating networking in virtual spaces, leveraged Braze’s technology to drive personalized communications, optimize user experiences and increase retention.

“By leveraging Braze technology, we’ve been able to scale personalized engagements and create more curated connections between our users,” said James Chapman, Founder and CEO at Plain Sight. “The Tech for Black Founders program has provided valuable technology and people resources, and I’ve been impressed by the support of the Braze team welcoming us as a truly integrated and a valued member of their community.”

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Grant Details and Process

To be eligible for the grant program, applicants must meet certain criteria including:

• Identify as a Black founder in the U.S. or EMEA
• Bootstrapped business or less than $30M in VC funding
• Have fewer than 100 employees

For the 15 businesses selected to participate, the program will offer:

• Platform access and education including a free Growth package for 12 months, with onboarding services and over 25 hours of educational content in Braze LABs.
• Customer Engagement capabilities including unlimited push notifications, webhooks, and in-app/in-browser messaging for up to 250,000 monthly active users; email costs covered up to 10M emails and two IP addresses.