City of Philadelphia Awards $750,000 to Organizations Working to Make the Tech Sector More Equitable
The PHL: Most Diverse Tech Hub initiative is awarding $750,000 to organizations focused on building an equitable tech and innovation ecosystem in Philadelphia.
The organizations selected are The Enterprise Center, Mom Your Business, Venture for America, Coded by Kids, Technical.ly and DiverseForce.
Philadelphia’s Department of Commerce is also awarding an additional $500,000 in funding to Per Scholas Philadelphia, a tech training organization.
Philadelphia’s Department of Commerce announced its latest cohort of organizations awarded a total of $750,000 in funding through the PHL: Most Diverse Tech Hub initiative.
The initiative, first launched in November 2020, invests in organizations that aim to build talent pipelines, train Black and brown Philadelphians for careers in tech and support Black and brown tech founders.
“I am really about building bridges and breaking down barriers,” Tempest Carter, director of strategic tech initiatives at the Philadelphia Department of Commerce, told The Plug.
“We are making the most inclusive economy possible and making sure that those who have historically been marginalized are able to fully participate and grow with the tech and innovation ecosystem here in Philadelphia,” she said.
The PHL: Most Diverse Tech Hub initiative was born out of Project NorthStar, a three-day tech conference aimed to provide connections, education and opportunities for minority entrepreneurs and professionals, held in partnership with Black & Brown Founders in 2018. The PHL initiative’s first round of funding in 2020 was $500,000, and Carter hopes it will continue growing. This year’s round currently stands at $750,000, with a goal of reaching $1 million next year.
“We’re putting our dollars and we’re putting skin in the game to say we believe that this industry can be more equitable. We believe that we have the talent here,” she said.
The City of Philadelphia seeks to become the most diverse tech hub in the country; this initiative aims to build the infrastructure to achieve that goal. In 2020, Philadelphia was ranked the third-best city for diversity in STEM by SmartAsset, with about 15 percent of the STEM workforce being Black and nine percent Latino.
The following organizations were selected to receive funding:
The Enterprise Center, a non-profit supporting the growth of diverse small businesses, and Mom Your Business, which connects female founders to resources and opportunities , were awarded $125,000 each to host a pitch competition for Black and brown tech founders this year. The Enterprise Center will be matching the prize funding awarded.
Venture for America, which connects college graduates to startup experiences, was awarded $100,000 to build a tech pipeline with HBCUs. The goal is to recruit from local HBCUs, Cheyney and Lincoln University, and Philadelphians who attend out-of-state HBCUs.
“When they graduate, not only do they have a space here in Philadelphia, they are wanted back home and they also have a viable economic opportunity here,” Carter said.
Coded by Kids , which teaches children from underrepresented groups tech and entrepreneurship skills, was awarded $100,000 to continue its work with the 1Philadelphia initiative to create an equitable tech and innovation ecosystem for underrepresented and underserved Philadelphians. 1Philadelphia awarded $320,000 in grants to community organizations and entrepreneurs in celebration of its two-year anniversary in November 2022.
Technical.ly, a tech news platform, was awarded $200,000 to manage a network of tech and tech-enabled companies committed to diverse hiring, training and mentorship.
The remaining $100,000 was awarded to DiverseForce , a recruitment and talent firm focused on diverse hiring. The firm’s founder, Sulaiman Rahman, also heads the P4 Hub , a coworking and event space for Black and brown professionals.
Separately from the PHL tech initiative, the Department of Commerce has also allocated an additional $500,000 in funding from its workforce solutions grant to Per Scholas Philadelphia , a tech training organization, to support unemployed and underemployed Philadelphians. The grant will be used to provide free training and job placement services in IT, cloud computing, cybersecurity and software engineering roles.
The initiative plans to host monthly meetings to focus on collaborative efforts among the cohort organizations. The inaugural March meeting will be the first time all cohort organizations are together in one room.
“It’s not only a way for us to kind of figure out what each other are doing, but to actively use that time as a workshop,” Carter said. “It’s like making a really good gumbo. You have all these different ingredients, as we put them together we’ll see what we’re able to do to push the needle in really creative ways.”
Philly’s newest coworking space, MYB Hub North, is designed for Black and brown founders
Mom Your Business coworking space was a long time coming for founder and CEO Tanya Morris.
That dream is finally coming true with the launch of the MYB Hub North, a space for Black and brown founders in North Philadelphia.
Morris “saw an opportunity” to bring business support services to an underserved area with the new hub at 1913 W. Lehigh Ave., which includes coworking on the first floor and a conference room in the basement, she told Technical.ly. The second floor has a creative studio for podcasting and photo shoots.
MYB Hub North. (Courtesy Mom Your Business)
The original vision for Mom Your Business, which helps women founders access resources and opportunities, was to create a coworking space for women, Morris told Technical.ly. Since starting her company in 2017, she’s been able to secure free office space for Mom Your Business through pitch competitions and other opportunities. The organization currently has an office at ic@3401 in University City.
(Morris was previously a founder-in-residence of University City Science Center’s OnRamp program and was also a founder of Black Girl Ventures’ Philly chapter. This past fall, she along with other Philly-based founders hosted a pitch competition funded by the City of Philadelphia Commerce Department’s Most Diverse Tech Hub initiative.)
As Mom Your Business grew, the need for a space to host founders, events and other programming became more apparent, Morris said.
Thanks to funding from Neighborhood Progress Fund, renovations on the North Philly hub started in May 2023. Mom Your Business launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise $25,000 to support continued renovations and hire a community manager.
The space had a soft opening in November and has hosted a few workshops and events, but it’s not completely open for coworking yet. The organization hosted a Founders to Funders alumni dinner in the space last month and a “Growing Your Business Through Certifications” workshop.
In February, the space will host a photo shoot for a campaign supporting Black-owned businesses. Morris hopes to host a full calendar of events for Women’s History Month in March. Mom Your Business also hopes to launch an online option for people to book space within the hub.
While the original idea was to create a space for women founders, this space is for all Black and brown founders, especially Black-owned small businesses based in North Philadelphia, Morris said. She chose this location partly to replace the local resources that Temple University’s Small Business Development Center offered before it moved to Center City.
Because of the space’s location, the Mom Your Business team is also thinking about hosting youth programming, such as a summer camp.
“We want the space to really be a beacon, to be a light in the North Philadelphia neighborhood,” Morris said, “and be able to provide support and a safe space for the community.”
Mom Your Business Received Community Project Grant from U.S. Senator Robert Casey
We are thrilled to announce that Mom Your Business has received a $130,000 Community Project Grant from United States Senator Bob Casey. This grant will support the rehabilitation of our new HUB, located at 1913 W. Lehigh Avenue. The HUB will serve as a dynamic space designed to house and support our diverse range of programming, including co-working facilities, training sessions, and community events.
At Mom Your Business, we are passionate about fostering economic empowerment and social change through entrepreneurship. Our initiatives focus on equipping women, particularly Black and Brown entrepreneurs, with the tools, resources, and capital needed to thrive in today’s business landscape.
To provide further context and details, I have attached our latest press release regarding this exciting development. We believe that the story of Mom Your Business and our new HUB aligns well with 6ABC’s commitment to highlighting impactful community initiatives and empowering stories.
We would be delighted to discuss this opportunity further and explore how we can collaborate to showcase the transformative impact of our work on your platform. Please feel free to reach out to me directly at 267-770-4002 or tanya@momyourbusiness.com.
Thank you for considering our story. We look forward to the possibility of working together to amplify the voices and successes of women entrepreneurs in our community.