A Cornish business has been named among a list of tech startups to join a programme designed to combat racial inequality in UK tech by supporting ethnically underrepresented founders.
Tech Nation, a leading growth platform for tech scaleups, announced 35 tech startups with black, south Asian, east Asian or Arab founders who have been accepted into Libra 2.0; the second iteration of the Libra programme for ethnically underrepresented tech founders in the UK.
Data Duopoly is just one of three businesses from the south west named to the list, and the only one in Cornwall. CEO and co founder, Tanuvi Ethunandan, said: “Data Duopoly is building the ‘waze’ for people management in places. We connect spaces, places and people using data and AI. We are excited to be on the Libra programme with Tech Nation to help us scale and expand our offering.
“We want to work with places nationwide to help visitors explore areas, and provide valuable data insights to places.”
The six-month government-backed Libra programme was created to tackle the racial diversity challenges that exist in UK tech. Last year, Extend Ventures reported that between 2009 and 2019, three quarters of VC investment went to all-white founding teams, while under a quarter (23%) went to multi-racial founding teams, and just 0.24% went to all-Black founding teams.
By supporting ethnically underrepresented tech leaders based in the UK (who are growing and scaling despite VC funding challenges), Libra aims to strengthen the UK’s position as one of the best places in the world to start and grow a business – for everyone.
