Pharrell Williams Announces Black Ambition Initiative Winners, Awards $1M Grand Prize

Back in December 2020, mega music producer Pharrell Williams announced the launch of an initiative for Black and Latinx entrepreneurs called Black Ambition. The purpose of the nonprofit is to provide a bridge to success for entrepreneurs of color working in tech, design, healthcare, and consumer products/services startups.

According to Billboard, the winners were announced by Williams and his nonprofit initiative, Black Ambition, earlier this week. Cash prizes ranged from $50,000 to $1 million.

The ceremony, which was held as a private virtual event on Tuesday, was hosted by Black Ambition CEO Felecia Hatcher and saw Williams announce the $1 million Grand Black Ambition Prize winner. Livegistics, which is a team of software developers, accounting professionals, and former construction managers, have used their expertise to build a cloud-based platform that innovates the methods in which companies manage civil projects, was the recipient of the top prize.

“If you think you’re excited, we really mean it when we say that we’re excited,” Williams said. “This is a game-changer. This [Black Ambition initiative] is about meeting human beings like you. You guys are the examples. You’re the dreams that we dreamt of [and] this is what Black Ambition is all about. All the game-changing, it begins right now.”

Black Ambition had received more than 1,700 applications which led to a group of 34 finalists being chosen.

After revealing the top prize winner, Black Ambition CEO Hatcher stated, “I’m almost shedding a tear right along with y’all. I’m very excited for you in this moment. When Black Ambition was just an idea from Pharrell, this is exactly the moment that he hoped and wished for and now it’s here.”

The complete list of winners is shown below:

Livegistics – Black Ambition $1 million grand prize

Alodia – Black Ambition $250,000 prize

Beereaders – Black Ambition $250,000 prize

QuirkChat – Black Ambition $250,000 prize

Emagine Solutions Technology – Black Ambition $100,000 prize

Dosso Beauty – Black Ambition HBCU $250,000 grand prize

Shea’d – Black Ambition HBCU $100,000 prize

GABA – Black Ambition HBCU $75,000 prize

PaperAI – Black Ambition HBCU $50,000 prize