Blavity

  1. Home
  2. Wiki
Blavity
Type of site
New media and lifestyle for African Americans[1][2]
Available inEnglish
Created byMorgan DeBaun
Aaron Samuels
URLblavity.com
LaunchedJuly 2014; 10 years ago (2014-07)
Current statusOnline

Blavity is an American digital media company and website based in Los Angeles. Founded in 2014, it aims to serve black millennials.[2][3][4]

History

[edit]

Blavity was founded by CEO Morgan DeBaun, Jonathan Jackson, Jeff Nelson, and Aaron Samuels in 2014;[3][5] DeBaun left Intuit, where she had worked for three years, to found the company. Blavity's name is a combination of the words "black" and "gravity"[3], a reference to the way black undergraduates at Washington University gravitated to the lunchtime cafeteria conversations between DeBaun and her friends.[6] The company has said it aims to "economically and creatively support Black millennials across the African scape, so they can pursue the work they love, and change the world in the process."[7]

In 2016, co-founders DeBaun and Samuels were named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list of "young people transforming the future of America".[8] Blavity launched two conferences: EmpowerHer, a conference in New York City for black women,[9] and Afrotech, a San Francisco summit for black people in technology.[10] By September 2016, Blavity was reaching millions of unique visitors per month.[1] That month, the company closed a $1 million round of seed funding.[1][4] An investor and mentor was African-American businesswoman Monique Woodard.[11]

In 2017, Lihle Z. Mtshali wrote in Essence that the site, which had about 40% user-generated content, focused "on sub-cultures, community, and local happenings in different cities rather than covering celebrities and mainstream black culture."[6]

In 2017, Blavity launched a black women's lifestyle platform, 21Ninety,[12] and acquired the black entertainment website Shadow and Act[13] and the black travel website Travel Noire.[14]

In July 2018, Blavity raised $6.5 million through GV, Comcast Ventures, Plexo Capital, and Baron Davis Enterprises to enlarge the company's engineering group, which works on new content, and establish a new office in Atlanta.[15][16][17]

In January 2023, Blavity launched Home and Texture, aimed at multicultural audiences buying homes, designing their spaces, and starting families.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c Sarah Buhr (September 12, 2016). "Blavity, the BuzzFeed for black millennials, is raising million and gets a redesign". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 10, 2017.
  2. ^ a b Kaya Thomas (September 7, 2015). "Blavity Hopes To Be The Digital Voice of Black Millennials". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 10, 2017.
  3. ^ a b c Mandi Woodruff (February 5, 2016). "5 black business leaders who are changing the face of Silicon Valley". Yahoo Finance. Retrieved January 10, 2017.
  4. ^ a b Dayna Evans (November 9, 2016). "How I Get It Done: Morgan DeBaun, Co-Founder and CEO of Content Platform Blavity". NYmag.com. Retrieved January 10, 2017.
  5. ^ Ketchum, John (April 20, 2017). "Blavity's CEO on taking risks and building a community for black millennials". CNN. Retrieved May 2, 2017.
  6. ^ a b Mtshali, Lihle Z. (2017-06-05). "Meet Blavity Co-Founder Morgan DeBaun And The Digital Empire She's Building". Essence. Retrieved 2017-06-25.
  7. ^ "Blavity". www.blavity.com. Archived from the original on 24 February 2017. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
  8. ^ Emily Inverso (January 4, 2016). "30 Under 30: Meet The Young People Transforming Media". Forbes. Retrieved January 10, 2017.
  9. ^ Cynthia Franciillon (May 14, 2016). "Morgan DeBaun's Blavity, Talks "EmpowerHer," Their First Conference for Black Women: EmpowerHer". Black Girl Nerds. Archived from the original on January 10, 2017. Retrieved May 2, 2017.
  10. ^ Brooks Jr., Carl (February 15, 2017). "Inside Blavity, the Startup on a Quest to Be the News Source for Black Millennials". Wired. Retrieved May 2, 2017.
  11. ^ by (2018-01-18). "Monique Woodard Is Leaving 500 Startups, Destination: Unknown". Moguldom. Retrieved 2021-02-10.
  12. ^ "Spinoff from Blavity caters to young black women".
  13. ^ "JetMag – the future is fueled by Jet".
  14. ^ "Blavity just acquired Travel Noire, a travel site for black millennials". 18 September 2017.
  15. ^ Ellingson, Annlee (July 20, 2018). "Blavity raises $6.5 million for digital media for black millennials". L.A. Biz. Retrieved July 21, 2018.
  16. ^ Hill, Selena (July 20, 2018). "Blavity Founder Raises Over $6 Million in Funding". Black Enterprise. Retrieved July 21, 2018.
  17. ^ Beilin, Holly (August 28, 2018). "Black Millennial Media Startup Blavity Confirms It's Using Series A to Open Atlanta Office". Hypepotamus. Retrieved September 8, 2018.


[edit]