Google’s black Founders fund ‘changed my life

Google’s cash grants to black entrepreneurs have had a “life-changing” impact on their ability to build businesses, one of the 10 UK founders selected to share the US Group’s $4 million (£3.3 million) Black Founders Fund.

Lottie Whyte, who runs an athlete recovery equipment company called Myomaster, said the most valuable impact of the grant was the open door.

“We’re a few years old and the next step is to expand. I think that’s where black female entrepreneurs get stuck, especially,” said White, 34, who has products such as massage guns and anti-water compression boots.

“You can bootstrap at first, but when you’re trying to scale up, you really need extra funds to do that, and that’s where black entrepreneurs fall because they don’t have access. [to capital].

“So Google’s opportunities are literally life-changing for us. Cash really helps, but when you tell someone who says Google just supported your business, it opens the door.”

Whyte set up Myomaster in 2018 with her husband Joe Grey, a rugby union player who concluded in England 10 years ago, and plans to raise new investments, and meets investors from Google’s network this week.

“We shared the news with little angel investors, so nearly 50% were back and said they wanted to put in their next money just because Google supports us,” she said.

White received $120,000 and $100,000 in credits for using Google Cloud as part of the initiative. The Google Scheme aims to tackle what Black entrepreneurs face, called “severe inequality in venture capital funding.” Less than 0.25% of UK venture capital funds said they went to a Black Founder-led startup in 2020.

This year, Google reduced the number of companies that fell from 40 to 15 across Europe, but kept the funds the same size, extended their range to Africa, and increased the maximum subsidy from $100,000 to $150,000.