Pharrell Williams Launches ‘Black Ambition’ Nonprofit For Black & Latinx Entrepreneurs

Pharrell Williams has joined the movement to help level the playing field for underrepresented Black and Latinx-owned businesses.

The Grammy Award-winning music mogul launched a new nonprofit, Black Ambition, to help “provide a bridge to success” for entrepreneurs. The first two initiatives include two competitions – The Black Ambition HBCU Prize and The Black Ambition Prize – to award up to $1M in individual prizes.

The Black Ambition HBCU Prize will offer prizes and mentorship for current and former students at historically Black universities and colleges to develop seed or early-stage ideas. The grand prize winner will receive up to a $250,000 prize and at least nine additional teams will receive smaller prizes. Teams must include at least one current or recent HBCU undergraduate or graduate student.

The Black Ambition Prize will provide support to seed early-stage companies. The grand prize winner will receive up to a $1 million prize and at least nine additional teams will receive smaller prizes.

For both prize competitions, all teams must have at least one founding member in a senior role who identifies as Black/African/African American and/or Hispanic/Latino/a/Latinx. In addition, the companies must be within tech, design, healthcare, and consumer products and services.

“Recent events and tragedies have illustrated the always existent stark divisions in the American experience, and while entrepreneurship has long been a tenet of the American dream, marginalized people have faced long-standing barriers to success,” said Williams in a recent statement. “With Black Ambition, the goal is to help strengthen the pipeline of talented entrepreneurs and close the opportunity and wealth gaps derived from limited access to capital and resources.”

The submission deadline for the Black Ambition competitions is February 18, 2021 at 9pm EST. The competition will culminate in July 2021 with teams competing for prizes.

For more information and to apply, visit blackambitionprize.com.