Pharrell Williams’ Black Ambition Awards $3.2 Million Dollars to 36 Entrepreneurs at Third Annual “Demo Day”
Maïré Rosa of Ecomspaces Was Awarded $250,000 and Leslie Winston III of Monocle Was Awarded $200,000, With Antoinette Banks Winning the Grand Prize of $1 Million Dollars Towards Expert IEP.
NEW YORK, Nov. 13, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Pharrell Williams’ Black Ambition, the non-profit initiative dedicated to supporting Black and Hispanic entrepreneurs, has awarded $1 million dollars to Antoinette Banks, CEO and Founder of Expert IEP, a parent-facing app that optimizes existing Individualized Education Plans with predictive AI for children diagnosed with a disability, as the Grand Prize Winner of its 2023 Prize competition at the third-annual “Demo Day” event held on Thursday, November 9th at Spring Studios in New York, NY. Other Top Prize Winners include ECOMSPACES, a one-stop-shop for e-commerce solutions ranging from product photography to order fulfillment, and HBCU Grand Prize Winner, Monocle, a social e-reader that creates a community-focused reading experience, who were awarded with $250,000 and $200,000, respectively, towards their ventures – in addition to 33 other prize recipients who also received monetary prizes.
Demo Day 2023 celebrated the monumental milestone of more than 100 entrepreneurs funded since Black Ambition’s inception in 2020. This year, over 2,000 applicants began their journey on either the General or HBCU Prize track. Participating founders represented companies within five distinct categories: Consumer Products and Services, Healthcare, Media and Entertainment, Technology, and Web 3.0. The nationwide competition was then narrowed down to 50 finalists, and then condensed even further to the top 36. This year, the 36 top finalists all received Prize awards ranging from $20,000 – $250,000. The final eight advancing finalists had the unique opportunity to pitch live on stage for the chance to win the grand prize of $1,000,000.
The esteemed panel of judges that determined the Prize winners included Marilyn Webber from Louis Vuitton, Erik Moore, Managing Director at Base Ventures, and Jay Lundy, SVP, Head of Investments & New Ventures at Combs Global. The event was hosted by two-time Emmy award-winning talk show host and Digital Lifestyle Expert, Mario Armstrong.
Following the pitching presentations, Founder Pharrell Williams was joined onstage by Black Ambition CEO Felecia Hatcher and Warby Parker Co-CEO David Gilboa for a compelling discussion on their respective entrepreneurial and leadership journeys. Additionally, prior year Black Ambition prize winners including Kadidja Dosso of Dosso Beauty (2021 HBCU Grand Prize Winner) & Karissma Yve of Gildform (a 2022 General Prize Winner) participated in a conversation moderated by Glenise Kinard-Moore, Founder and CEO of Skiimoo Tech (2022 2nd place General Prize Winner), discussing their entrepreneurial journey & business successes since winning investments.