1871’s Juneteenth Celebration: Honoring Black Excellence
1871’s Annual Juneteenth 2024 Celebration was a vibrant day, with over 450+ attendees celebrating Black innovation, entrepreneurship, and allyship.
This public, family-friendly event took place on the riverside of Chicago’s historic Merchandise Mart, featuring an outdoor spread of networking, raffles, games, food, drinks, and our BLKtech Pitch Competition Finals.
Our go-to DJ, DJ Marcus, kept the energy high as he spun music for the attendees, creating an atmosphere of unity and community spirit. A little rain in the afternoon didn’t dampen our spirits as we moved the event inside the Mart to Marshall’s Landing, ensuring the festivities continued without a hitch.
Spotlighting Black-Owned Businesses
Raffles from local Black-owned Chicago businesses were a highlight of the event! Our community enjoyed discovering and supporting these businesses, with many walking away with fantastic prizes:
- Batter and Berries
- Da Book Joint
- Daisy’s Po-Boy & TavernÂ
- Hue Chicago
- IWN
- Kido
- L1
- Michael Lavelle WinesÂ
- Revel Room
- FEW Whiskey
- Here Here Market
- Ladybird Crochet
Announcing 1871's BLKtech Pitch Competition Winners
Our Annual BLKtech Pitch Competition Finals also took place at our Juneteenth event for the first time this year. Five incredible Black startup founders pitched their innovative ideas in the semi-finals. They were awarded a mix of cash, equity, developer credits, and 1871 membership.Â
Join us in spotlighting these talented individuals and their innovative ventures as we aim to continue challenging these barriers and pave the way for a more inclusive and equitable tech ecosystem.
CPRWrap Inc.
Pitched by Founder & President Felicia Jackson
Winnings: $15K in cash & equity
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CPRWrap is dedicated to revolutionizing the way individuals perform CPR in emergency situations. With their innovative product, also named CPRWrap, they provide a simple yet effective solution that guides users through the critical steps of CPR, ensuring proper technique and potentially saving lives. By empowering individuals with confidence and clarity during high-stress situations, they aim to make CPR accessible to everyone and improve survival rates for cardiac arrest victims.
Industry focus areas:Â Business Products & Services (industry agnostic), E-Commerce, Brand, RetailTech, HealthCare, MedTech, Pharma, Wellness, and Social ImpactÂ
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Tuverl
$10K in cash & $2.5K in Aloa Developer Credits
Tuverl seeks to revolutionize public transport in Africa by offering zero-collateral financing for climate-friendly vehicles and innovative digital solutions. Its platform optimizes public transport operations, enabling operators to improve routes, increase revenue, and enhance efficiency. Through its app, commuters can live-track buses and minibusses, book trips, hail taxis, and pay digitally. Tuverl’s approach supports sustainable urban development and climate action, making travel safer, more reliable, and affordable for millions across the continent.
Tinted Health is a curated digital health platform that provides access to minority providers skilled in cultural literacy. They are focused on educating providers to specifically address minority health needs through shared learning. They make it easy for minority patients to access and book minority providers in real-time through its site, addressing the health gap and the trust gap.
Industry focus areas:Â HealthCare, MedTech, Pharma, Wellness, Social Impact, Artificial Intelligence
Ujamaa.Financial Â
$5K in Aloa Developer Credits
Ujamaa.Financial, pitched by Founder Dana Fry
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Ujamaa.Financial is a mission-driven fintech empowering communities often overlooked in mainstream finance – Black, Brown, and first-generation college students and graduates. Through a gamified app, it delivers culturally contextualized financial education, facilitates accelerated debt repayment via round-up payments, and builds credit profiles – all while fostering a supportive community. Ujamaa.Financial aims to boost financial literacy, speed up generational wealth creation, and provide inclusive financial services tailored to the unique challenges these demographics face. With novel approaches like fractional asset rewards, the company represents the next wave of fintechs focused on democratizing financial progress.
Industry focus areas:Â FinTech, Financial services, EdTech, InsureTech, Real Estate Tech, Social Impact
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plait
$2.5K in Aloa Developer Credits
Pitched by Founder & CEOÂ Makini Allwood
plait is an online marketplace and delivery solution that will partner with Black beauty retailers whose inventories are 100% dedicated to Black hair and beauty. From their website, plait customers can order all the hair products, extensions, and styling tools they need. Then, full-time delivery drivers will collect ordered items from their network of inventory partners, repackage the items into custom orders at a small fulfillment facility, and then deliver the orders to its customers as early as the next day.
Industry focus areas:Â Logistics, Supply Chain, Transportation, Mobility, E-Commerce, Brand, and RetailTechÂ
Bolstering Black Excellence
“I want everybody to know here and remember, this is a community for you, for you, for you, for you….and it has the power to change lives. It’s definitely changed mine.” Jeff Osujij, 1871 Member, Founder & CEO of Eventnoire, Entrepreneur-In-Residence for 1871’s BLKtech Founders, gives a heartfelt speech on what it means to be part of our innovation community.
View more of the speech here, where Jeff recognizes 1871, particularly, CEO Betsy Ziegler’s efforts in supporting Black founders in Chicago.
Learning about 1871 BLKtech
1871’s Juneteenth celebration is one of our signature events. View our full event playlist here. Within our Affinity Programs Initiative, we have strategically developed a suite of offerings to support and amplify Black innovation & entrepreneurialism that we call BLKtech.Â
Through immersive programming, tailored resources, mentorship, and community networking opportunities it’s our mission to do our part to right systemic barriers and challenges in accessing resources and opportunities for this community.
Our programs, mention below, are designed for founders, leaders, tech enthusiasts, and the public:
BLKtech Pitch Competition, BLKtech Founders, Tech Leaders, and BLKtech Voices.Â
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