Kevin Hart’s plant-based nutrition company has received new funding. In 2022, Hart founded VitaHustle, a plant-based nutrition company that offers an all-in-one protein wellness shake. VitaHustle’s tagline is “Daily Nutrition Simplified” and promises its customers that its offerings will support wellness, gut health, energy, and weight management. The company’s product contains 20 grams of plant protein. It is made with ashwagandha, multivitamins, adaptogens, probiotics, and digestive enzymes, according to its website. It comes in a variety of flavors, including vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, and cookies-and-cream.   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by G A B R I E L L E (@theplayavistamom) “Kevin Hart passionately believes that everyone should have the right to eat right. VitaHustle presents The One, a targeted blend of 86 premium superfoods that unlock your peak mental and physical performance. It’s all built up to this. We put in years of work,” he said in a video...

A lawsuit has been filed against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) regarding grants through the Increasing Land, Capital, and Market Access (LCM) program. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, the LCM program was funded during Joe Biden’s presidency through the Inflation Reduction Act and the American Rescue Plan Act. Starting in 2023, it has provided nearly $300 million in federal aid to tribes, farmers’ associations, and universities and was created to serve “ underserved producers by increasing land, capital, and market access.” According to a press release shared with AFROTECH™, it funded community-based, locally led projects that provided support such as down payment assistance, low-interest loans, beginning farmer training, cover crop seeds, equipment, technical guidance, infrastructure, procurement agreements, and succession planning support. Under the Trump administration, many grants through the program were canceled. Farm Service Agency Associate Administrator Steven...

Ruka Hair has raised new funding to scale its mission of ensuring hair and beauty solutions work for the textured-hair community. Ruka Hair Ruka Hair Co-Founder and CEO Tendai Moyo was 17 when she went to a corner shop in Swindon, England, on the hunt for hair extensions, she explained in an interview with Translate Culture. She recalled seeing inexpensive hair extensions and later realizing the industry had changed little over the years. “I was a strategy consultant prior to this, and the industry hasn’t changed very much. It’s still really hard to find high-quality hair extensions that work for Black women. Success for us is about creating a brand that brings Black women joy,” Moyo said in the video. “ For too long in this space, getting your hair done is painful. When you’re a kid, it comes with a lot of t ears. I t’s expensive, you’re spending money on products that don’t work, and oftentimes, you don’t really know what you’re doing because you haven’t had that expert access. So...

Rosarium Health, a Black-founded healthtech company supporting in-home care for aging populations, has secured new funding. Cameron Carter is the founder and CEO of the company, which was inspired by his years spent in value-based healthcare operations and business development roles at DaVita Inc., Bright Health, Evolent Health, and Truven Health Analytics, according to his LinkedIn profile. He told the American Family Insurance Institute that he observed how customers spent money on healthcare and how their health outcomes “often fall short.” He also mentioned to the outlet, “I repeatedly saw that people were ending up in hospitals or nursing facilities because their living situations and neighborhood environment were unsafe and unsupported, not because they needed more medicine.” Carter also has first-hand experience navigating at-home healthcare from when he assisted his aunt and grandmother. While they did not need “round-the-clock care,” they needed a safer bathroom, improved...

Brandon Hill has raised millions in funding guided by the mission of ensuring “every supermarket in America autonomous,” he said on LinkedIn. For many founders, their lived experiences help shape the ventures they go on to create. Hill is a third-generation grocer with grandparents who owned a small store in Oklahoma and parents who’ve had careers in the grocery industry , Fortune reports . In 2020, Hill first stumbled upon the grocery industry’s outdated administrative systems while visiting his parents in Minnesota. He found a stack of various paper invoices and wholesale catalogs. “I looked at these books, and I said, ‘Okay, what is this? A relic or a souvenir from you guys when you guys were my age?’ And they said, ‘No, this is how grocery stores operate here in 2020,’” Hill explained, according to Fortune. This informed Vori, an AI-powered grocery startup for independent grocers. It launched in 2019 in East Palo Alto with a team of Stanford engineers from SpaceX, Google, and...

Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette wants South Carolina State University to lose state funding. Inside Higher Ed reports that South Carolina State University students organized a protest after Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette, who is running for governor, was scheduled as the guest speaker at their May 8 commencement. A separate story from Inside Higher Ed notes that students were concerned about Evette’s opposition to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and her support for President Donald Trump. “On the campus of SC State University, let’s be clear, facts trump feelings in the real world. President Trump and conservatives have done more for HBCUs than any administration in history. I must be doing something right because woke mobs are coming after me for being a champion of eliminating radical DEI scams on college campuses. So bring it on. Just like President Trump, I’ll never back down or bend a knee to the woke radicals. I’m ending DEI on campuses once and for all,” she said...

Monica Cornitcher is keeping her late friend’s legacy alive through their cocktail brand, lighting up the market. Inga Dyer was Cornitcher’s close friend for more than 30 years. The pair met while attending Howard University in the 1990s, where they also pledged Delta Sigma Theta. In their respective careers, Dyer became an entertainment lawyer, and Cornitcher built expertise in mergers and acquisitions and business transformation while leading her own company for nearly 25 years. At the time, they did not realize their skills would eventually lead them to start a business together, though Cornitcher felt entrepreneurship was always her path and never worked in corporate again after turning 28. The progression of their entrepreneurship journey together was planted during the wake of COVID-19, Cornitcher shared in an interview with AFROTECH™. She had been in Atlanta but moved to California to be closer to family, and Dyer already lived in California . By default, the pair was hanging...

A new bank has opened in Indianapolis that will center on underserved communities. Generations Community Bank, an effort led by Evansville, IN-based Old National Bank, has opened its doors in Indianapolis, specifically in the Indy Health District, at 2110 N. Illinois St., after four years. According to BizVoice Magazine, the startup bank aims to close longstanding gaps in access to capital for minority, low-income, and underserved communities. Its offerings will include small-business lending, home financing, and community-focused development designed to support financial stability and wealth. “At Generations Community Bank, we want to listen to our customers, explain things, educate and collaborate, so the people we’re serving have the resources they haven’t had before. That’s how we plan to stay proximate to the communities we serve,” Generations Community Bank President and CEO Al London told the outlet. The bank marks Indiana’s first Minority Depository Institution (MDI), giving...