Challenges Faced by Black Founders

Allen pointed out that fundraising was particularly challenging for Black founders, with Crunchbase reporting that Black founders raised only 0.3% of the $79 billion that went to U.S.-based startups in the first half of the year. Allen felt like she was in competition with other Black-founded fintechs for a smaller piece of the pie, with some investors telling her that they had already invested in another Black-founded debit card fintech. This lack of diversity in funding and the limited opportunities for Black founders to access capital further exacerbated the challenges faced by CapWay.