March is Women’s History Month, and there is no better time to celebrate and shine a light on Black women business trailblazers, creators and founders. The global artificial intelligence (AI) market is expected to grow to $1,812 billion by the end of 2030. Black women founders are making a name for themselves in this cutting-edge industry right now.
Simi Lindgren
In today’s beauty market, consumers have more access to brands and products than ever before, but without personalized support on what will work best for them. In 2020, founder & CEO of Yuty, Simi Lindgren, launched an AI beauty tech solution for personalization. Based in London, Yuty helps beauty brands stand out by offering their customers data-backed personalized recommendations to match customers of all skin colors and types to the best products for them.
Lindgren had a unique career trajectory. She went to med school, but ultimately began her career in marketing communications, where she matched brands with media celebrities and influencers. In 2021, Lindgren became the 10th Black female founder in the UK to successfully raise VC for her business, a space that is notoriously insular.
Ana Cabral
Based in São Paulo, Brazil, Baruk is a startup providing AI business software solutions. Principal co-founder, Ana Cabral, is an Afro-Latina entrepreneur passionate about helping companies use AI to automate and grow. Through machine learning, Baruk creates bots that are intelligent, multilingual and humanlike. For companies that incorporate AI into their operations, Baruk’s chatbots offer more efficient customer service and play a crucial role in task automation, data management, analysis, decision-making and the personalization of interactions.
Taylor Shead
CEO and founder of Stemuli, Taylor Shead, launched her Dallas,TX-based AI company with the mission of empowering the next generation to thrive in a technologically advanced workforce. Shead was the 94th Black woman in history to raise more than $1 million in venture capital.
At the intersection of AI, education and workforce development, today Shead’s company is the country’s first educational metaverse that turns school into a video game and personalizes learning and curriculum for every student. Stemuli helps students maintain a portfolio of every achievement, certification and development milestone to help them showcase themselves to the marketplace and land the job of their dreams.
Elise Smith
In 2019, CEO and co-founder Elise Smith launched Praxis Labs with Heather Shen, co-founder and chief product officer, to train people on DEI in virtual reality. The New York City-based company uses mixed reality technology to train users to build core human skills that improve company culture, foster equity and inclusion and drive engagement and retention. Praxis Labs helps users navigate difficult workplace problems, develop more empathy and overhaul company cultures.
For Smith, the inspiration for Praxis Labs and her desire to fight for access and opportunity, came from her parents’ fight for educational equity. She believes that workplace systems and structures should allow for everyone to thrive in the workplace.