Black Girl Ventures Marks 10 Years and More Than 550 Businesses Funded

Omi Bell did not start with a fund. In 2016, the founder and CEO of Black Girl Ventures gathered about 30 women for a meetup called Black Girl Vision, a room where Black women founders could finally see each other, swap notes and talk honestly about what it takes to build a business without a safety net. Ten years later, that room has become one of the most recognized platforms for Black and Brown women entrepreneurs in the country, with more than 550 under-resourced businesses funded and over 20,000 entrepreneurs reached.

The idea behind the meetup was simple and urgent. Bell saw talented women of color building real companies with almost no visibility and even fewer doors open to capital, mentors and investors. Black Girl Vision gave those women a place to connect, and as the community grew, so did the ambition. The group was rebranded as Black Girl Ventures, and the focus shifted from gathering women to getting money into their hands through pitch competitions that let communities back the founders they believe in.

A Founder Who Built Before She Funded

Bell understands the founders she serves because she has been one many times over. Born in Durham, North Carolina, she earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from North Carolina A&T State University and began her career as a K-12 teacher before stepping fully into entrepreneurship. She built MsPrint USA, a women-run custom clothing and merchandise print shop whose clients included Amazon and Google, and she led the Seven City Art Society, a community arts organization that grew into Made By a Black Woman, a marketplace for clothing, accessories and home decor created by women of color.

That mix of tech, education, retail and community building shows up in everything Black Girl Ventures does. The organization treats founders as whole people with families, communities and long-term visions, and it has grown into an ecosystem that meets them at multiple stages. Today, Black Girl Ventures runs pitch competitions, the BGV Connect community platform, the Digital Orange Juice newsletter, a leadership experience called Boardrooms & Breathwork and the BGV Foundation, which helps small businesses hire and grow.

Ten Years of Wins for Women Founders

The numbers behind the decade reach well past the founders who took home funding. Black Girl Ventures has hosted more than 300 events, trained over 5,000 leaders and served more than 40,000 families through the businesses and communities it supports. Along the way, it has collaborated with major brands including Nike, TikTok, PIMCO and Visa, bringing corporate resources into rooms that were built by and for women of color.

Bell has described that impact as proof of a simple principle. “Together, we’ve proven that when we invest in women of color, entire communities thrive,” she wrote in a letter to the Black Girl Ventures community. Every business funded through the platform carries that ripple effect, from the first employee a founder hires to the family that benefits when a side hustle finally becomes a sustainable company.

The anniversary arrives at a moment when Black women founders are building in a tougher climate. Many of the corporate diversity commitments made in recent years have quietly pulled back, and venture capital remains extraordinarily hard for Black women to access. In that landscape, organizations like Black Girl Ventures have become essential infrastructure, creating their own pipelines for capital and community instead of waiting for traditional investors to change.

Meet the ELF 2.0 Winners Taking Their Brands Further

The latest proof of that model played out on stage in Washington, D.C. On September 10, 2026, the BGV Foundation hosted the live final of its Emerging Leaders Fellowship 2.0 pitch competition at BGV Homecoming, and on October 23 the foundation officially named its three winners. ELF 2.0 is a reimagined 12-week accelerator for revenue-generating founders ready to scale by hiring at least one team member, blending leadership and workforce development with capital activation through crowdfunding and pitching. Made possible with support from PIMCO, this year’s program backed 25 fellows across Detroit, Austin, Los Angeles and New York City, each of whom received a $5,000 stipend before six finalists flew in to pitch for three minutes and field two minutes of questions from a panel of three judges.

The road to that stage started with the community. Each cohort closed with a virtual pitch competition on Raisify, BGV Foundation’s crowdfunding platform, where every donation of $5 or more counted as a vote and founders were ranked by total dollars raised divided by the number of unique voters, a measure that rewards broad support over a single large check. Every founder kept 70% of the crowd capital she raised, the two cohorts brought in $71,885 combined, and $90,000 in prizes was awarded across both rounds. The top three from each cohort advanced to Homecoming, where the judging panel decided how the final $30,000 would be split.

First place and $15,000 went to Sade Parham, co-founder and CEO of Blue Water Girls in New York City, who also won the Cohort 2 virtual round and received $36,050 in total through ELF 2.0. The Caribbean-inspired sun and body care brand, created by three friends whose travels together shaped its identity, is known for Private Island Glow, a clean tan accelerant and glow serum that supports the skin’s own melanin production. Blue Water Girls has generated more than $200,000 in revenue in under two years with a 42% repeat customer rate, and it is sold at Ulta Beauty, Nordstrom, Revolve, Amazon and TikTok Shop. Since the competition, Ulta Beauty selected the brand for its 2026 MUSE Accelerator, and the company is now raising $500,000 for inventory, marketing, team growth and new products, including a self-tanner planned for 2027.

Second place and $10,000 went to Gisela Rocha, founder of Los Angeles-based Untamed Naturals, who placed third in the Cohort 2 virtual round and received $24,602.50 in total through the fellowship. Rocha crossed the border from Mexico at age six holding her grandmother’s hand, and the home remedies passed down through her family now live in a line of multi-use, plant-based wellness essentials for modern families. In six years, with zero debt and no outside capital, the Latina-owned, family-operated brand has grown to more than 100 stockists nationwide, including Bristol Farms, Mother’s Market, Lazy Acres, New Leaf and Uncommon Goods, and it is the only Latina-founded wellness brand on Bristol Farms shelves. Her next goal is 100 more retail accounts over the next two years, supported by $150,000 in growth capital for production, retail expansion and brand awareness.

Third place and $5,000 went to Sierra L. Boone, founder and CEO of Detroit’s Boone Productions, the family-run studio behind the award-winning PBS Michigan series The Nap Time Show. Boone won the Cohort 1 virtual round and received $27,320.50 in total through ELF 2.0. Every month, 1.3 million Americans miss work because childcare falls through, and 90% of them are women. Boone’s answer is Fruit Snack Streams, short interactive experiences that play on the TVs already in most childcare classrooms and guide children through daily transitions like drop-off, cleanup, nap and dismissal, an approach that has cut the time it takes to settle children for nap from 20 minutes to five. With support from the Detroit Startup Fund, Boone and her team are moving Fruit Snack Streams from beta testing to a full app built for real classrooms.

What Comes Next for Black Girl Ventures

As it heads into its second decade, Black Girl Ventures is committed to continuing to build, innovate and create spaces where under-represented entrepreneurs are centered and celebrated. For Bell, the work has always gone deeper than a single check or a single pitch night. It is about building lasting systems that let Black and Brown women grow businesses that outlive them, hire from their own neighborhoods and pass wealth to the next generation.

From a meetup of about 30 women to an ecosystem that has touched tens of thousands of entrepreneurs, the first ten years of Black Girl Ventures show what happens when one woman decides that the room she needed should exist for everyone coming after her. Founders who want to get involved can learn about upcoming pitch competitions, programs and the BGV Connect community through Black Girl Ventures.

Featured image: Photo by David Anthony