Blavity

Blavity is an American Internet media company and website based in Los Angeles, created by and for black millennials.[2][3][4] Their mission is 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."[5]

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

Founding

Blavity was founded by Morgan DeBaun (CEO) and co-founded by Jonathan Jackson, Jeff Nelson and Aaron Samuels in 2014;[3][6] DeBaun had worked at Intuit for three years prior but left to found the new company. Blavity's name is a combination of the words "black" and "gravity",[3] inspired by DeBaun's experience as an undergraduate at Washington University; she was struck that eating lunch with a few friends at their regular table in the college cafeteria over time attracted more and more black students to their discussions of everything from politics to pop culture, a kind of intellectual "black gravity".[7]

Content, visitors and growth

In Essence, Lihle Z. Mtshali described the site as focused "on sub-cultures, community, and local happenings in different cities rather than covering celebrities and mainstream black culture."[7] The site contains approximately 40% user-generated content.[7]

In September 2016, Blavity reached millions of unique visitors per month.[1] That month, the company closed a one million dollar round of seed funding.[1][4] Investor and mentor was Monique Woodard, a famous African-American businesswoman.[8]

In 2016, 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]

In 2017, Blavity launched a black women's lifestyle platform, 21Ninety,[11] and acquired two other properties, the black entertainment website Shadow and Act[12] and the black travel website Travel Noire.[13]

In July 2018, Blavity raised $6.5 million in new funding through GV, Comcast Ventures, Plexo Capital, and Baron Davis Enterprises. The funds are intended to increase the size of the company's engineering group, which works on new content, and establish a new office in Atlanta.[14][15][16]

In January 2023, Blavity launched Home and Texture. The new media brand is targeted at multicultural audiences buying homes, designing their spaces and starting families.

Recognition

In 2016, two of the Blavity founders, DeBaun and Samuels, were named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list of "young people transforming the future of America".[17]

References
  1. Sarah Buhr (September 12, 2016). "Blavity, the BuzzFeed for black millennials, is raising million and gets a redesign". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 10, 2017.
  2. Kaya Thomas (September 7, 2015). "Blavity Hopes To Be The Digital Voice of Black Millennials". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 10, 2017.
  3. Mandi Woodruff (February 5, 2016). "5 black business leaders who are changing the face of Silicon Valley". Yahoo Finance. Retrieved January 10, 2017.
  4. 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. "Blavity". www.blavity.com. Archived from the original on 24 February 2017. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
  6. Ketchum, John (April 20, 2017). "Blavity's CEO on taking risks and building a community for black millennials". CNN. Retrieved May 2, 2017.
  7. Mtshali, Lihle Z. (2017-06-05). "Meet Blavity Co-Founder Morgan DeBaun And The Digital Empire She's Building". Essence. Retrieved 2017-06-25.
  8. by (2018-01-18). "Monique Woodard Is Leaving 500 Startups, Destination: Unknown". Moguldom. Retrieved 2021-02-10.
  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. "Spinoff from Blavity caters to young black women".
  12. "JetMag – the future is fueled by Jet".
  13. "Blavity just acquired Travel Noire, a travel site for black millennials". 18 September 2017.
  14. Ellingson, Annlee (July 20, 2018). "Blavity raises $6.5 million for digital media for black millennials". L.A. Biz. Retrieved July 21, 2018.
  15. Hill, Selena (July 20, 2018). "Blavity Founder Raises Over $6 Million in Funding". Black Enterprise. Retrieved July 21, 2018.
  16. 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.
  17. Emily Inverso (January 4, 2016). "30 Under 30: Meet The Young People Transforming Media". Forbes. Retrieved January 10, 2017.


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