Google chooses two Black-led Boston startups for investment

A digital pharmacy and a firm that helps African migrants in the United States transfer money back home without fees have both attracted the attention -- and funding -- of Google's Black Founders Fund. This was Google's third annual round of funding for its Black Founders Fund, with recipients also receiving programming, technical and business mentorship and other aid. It should have been $10, Ojutalayo said. The company, which has a pharmacy operation in New Hampshire, uses software to work with digital health companies and small pharmacies that lack the latest technology to provide better price transparency for medications. Health Haven Rx is licensed to ship medications to all 50 states. He wanted to turn his career toward business and making a difference. 'But in the process of trying to earn more revenue, you want to be able to actually make a difference and make an impact.' The company secured its first funding early this year from Techstars, the startup accelerator of which it is a part, and from TBD Angels, which Ojutalayo said has gone a long way toward starting to build the company's team. Ojutalayo said he's found raising capital in the earliest phases to be difficult. 'So that's part of what makes it a little bit more difficult being an underrepresented founder.' 'I experienced similar problems,' Ezeani said, 'but to an even worse extent.' He met Scott Morgan, an MBA student at MIT who would become his co-founder at an MIT event for wooing potential investors. A partnership was born. Plenty of other providers offer currency exchange, Ezeani said, but CashEx is different in that it has a broader range of services, including helping customers open bank accounts, and a plan to help customers move their credit history from their home country to the United States to help them open credit cards. The company was part of Harvard Innovation Labs' startup cohort early this year, and in May it was a recipient of the Harvard President's Innovation Challenge Awards. The company makes small fees on cash exchanges. Many investors can tend to tune out to a pitch when talk turns to African immigrants, he said.