Our founders, Nathaniel Wade and Albert Larter, have been named in Techrounds Top 50 BAME Under 50 Entrepreneurs in the UK, Europe & USA, 2021.
This incredible award allows our founders, Nathaniel and Albert to promote the Wakuda brand alongside some incredibly influential names such as Steven Bartlett, Jay Richards and Priya Downes.
Previously, companies such as Naq Cyber received some substantial funding rounds by the inclusion of their company in the Techround 50 under 50 list. Not only does the award give an incredible amount of PR and advertisement, but it causes further brand validation by investors across the globe that otherwise may have been looked over.
We started our company Wakuda in the aftermath that proceeded after the George Floyd case. Millions of people engaged in the story of George Floyd and began to educate themselves on the Black Lives Movement, Black Communities and even Black-owned Businesses.
As people started to shift their purchase psychology, steering towards thinking about the brand’s journey, not just the product or service, we entered the gap in the market.
Instead of having consumers searching tirelessly for independent Black-owned businesses in order to support their community, or show their appreciation, we gave the consumers an all-in-one platform to shop on. The knowledge that the products users were supporting, purchasing and referring to their social circles originated from Black-owned brands gave peace of mind to the consumer.
And it all benefits the communities that we support using our platform. With the spotlight of press coverage surrounding our brand, the growing 300 brands that traditionally were limited in their growth have begun to see some real change, growth and development.
One of the key reasons for the nomination within the list of inspiring BAME entrepreneurs isn’t just for our promotion of black communities. Consumers don’t simply come to our site to show support for other like-minded black business owners.
Instead, we have worked hard with our messaging and marketing strategy to ensure that any person clicking through to our site knows that these brands are for everyone, not just the black community. We believe we have done this successfully, as 70% of the users making purchases from our website are white.
Users have the ability to search for new, exciting brands that sell unique products that would otherwise have been lost and hard to sell. We are so proud that as a company we are able to bring these brands and products to a mainstream market with large audiences to give them the promotion, growth and development that they deserve.
With this award secured, we hope to continue with our success. We want to continue to enrich society by buying through Black-owned brands and using their products long term, not just because in the wake of the George Floyd crisis, it is seen as trendy.
In the growing years, we hope to continue to bridge the income gap between those entrepreneurs that have lived a privileged upbringing and those entrepreneurs that have struggled because of their ethnicity.
A huge congratulations to Nathaniel Wade and Albert Larter for being included in the Top 3 of BAME-50 by Techround. We can’t wait to continue our development and reach an international market.
