Longtime local innovator Felecia Hatcher — a serial entrepreneur and champion for minority tech business-owners — is reportedly stepping down from her role at Miami’s Center for Black Innovation to lead Black Ambition — a nonprofit organization founded by Grammy-winning artist Pharrell Williams, Bizwomen shares.
Black Ambition — a new venture recently launched this past December — was created in hopes of funding projects and companies led by Black and Hispanic entrepreneurs.
“Excited to finally be able to announce that I have accepted a role as CEO of Black Ambition a bold vision founded by Pharrell Williams to connect Black & Latinx and HBCU startup founders to unprecedented capital and access through prize competitions,” she wrote in a Facebook post. “Excited to lead this! Excited to be in a position to directly fund founders. The best part….although a nationally-focused organization we will be based in Miami. Excited for the journey ahead.”
Hatcher is well-known for being a serial startup founder and supporter of minority-led tech ventures. Prior to her new appointment, she co-founded Code Fever Miami to help teach Black students how to code and prepare the next generation of diverse tech workers.
Bizwomen reports that the startup recently rebranded as the Center for Black Innovation last year and previously secured a $2 million investment from the Knight Foundation, NBCUniversal and the Surdna Foundation to help aid in the center’s mission to become a nationwide research center and training hub for Black business-owners.
According to Hatcher, the center has connected Black founders with more than $10 million in funding and capital opportunities, the outlet reports.
Now that Hatcher is joining Black Ambition, the organization’s ultimate goal will be to continue identifying and directly funding the ideas of promising founders who are building innovations for tech, design, healthcare and consumer product startups.
The Miami nonprofit is currently accepting applications for its two upcoming national competitions — The Black Ambition HBCU Prize and The Black Ambition Prize — both of which will offer cash prizes to students and entrepreneurs who are developing ideas for seed and early-stage startups.
