The Top 9 Black-Owned Tech Companies in 2027: Who Built Real Power, and How
From a $20 billion IT empire in St. Louis to an AI chip company backed by Intel, these nine companies show the different ways Black entrepreneurs are building ownership in technology.
Each one teaches a different lesson about control, capital and leverage.
Every year, lists of Black-owned tech companies circulate online, and most of them read the same way: a logo, a founder photo and a valuation.
That approach celebrates the result while hiding the method. For an entrepreneur trying to build something of their own, the method is the only part that matters.
This list takes a different approach. It ranks nine companies by the lane of power each one represents, starting with the largest scale and moving toward the AI-native companies defining what comes next.
The goal is the same one behind the New Black Wall Street 2.0: study how ownership was built, so the next generation can build it faster.
What Are the Top Black-Owned Tech Companies Right Now?
The top Black-owned and Black-founded tech companies heading into 2027 are World Wide Technology, Flutterwave, Moniepoint, Calendly, Cityblock Health, Esusu, PrimalMogul AI, SambaNova and Harper.
Together they cover IT infrastructure, payments, small business banking, software, health care, credit, business intelligence, AI computing and AI-run services.
| # | Company | Lane of power | Founder or co-founder |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | World Wide Technology | Enterprise IT and AI infrastructure | David Steward |
| 2 | Flutterwave | Cross-border payments | Olugbenga “GB” Agboola |
| 3 | Moniepoint | Small business banking | Tosin Eniolorunda |
| 4 | Calendly | Software product (SaaS) | Tope Awotona |
| 5 | Cityblock Health | Health care technology | Dr. Toyin Ajayi |
| 6 | Esusu | Credit access and fintech | Wemimo Abbey |
| 7 | PrimalMogul AI | Business and leadership intelligence | Jamal “Sultan” Leigh |
| 8 | SambaNova | AI chips and computing | Kunle Olukotun |
| 9 | Harper | AI-run insurance brokerage | Dakotah Rice |
Disclosure: PrimalMogul AI publishes this article. Our platform appears at number seven as an early-stage company, and the section below explains why it belongs in the conversation and how it differs in scale from the others.
First, a Distinction: Black-Owned Versus Black-Founded
Ownership and founding are two different things. A company is Black-owned when Black shareholders control it. A company is Black-founded when a Black entrepreneur started it, even if venture investors later took large stakes.
Venture-backed startups usually sell pieces of themselves in every funding round, so a founder can lead a billion-dollar company while owning a minority of it.
That distinction shapes everything on this list. World Wide Technology is privately held and built largely without venture capital. Most of the others raised hundreds of millions from outside investors, trading ownership for speed.
Neither path is wrong, but each comes with a cost, a theme we explore in why culture creates demand while ownership collects the money.
The capital picture explains why the distinction matters. U.S. startups with a Black founder or co-founder raised about $942 million in 2025, just 0.32% of all U.S. venture funding, according to Crunchbase News’ analysis of Black founder venture funding.
When the money is that scarce, every founder on this list had to solve the capital problem in a different way.
1. World Wide Technology: The Scale Play
David Steward co-founded World Wide Technology in St. Louis in 1990, and the company now generates roughly $20 billion a year, according to Black America Web’s 2026 ranking of the richest Black-owned businesses.
That makes it the largest Black-owned company in America by most measures. WWT doesn’t make consumer products. It helps large companies and governments buy, test and integrate technology from partners such as Cisco, Dell and Nvidia.
The strategic lesson is positioning. WWT built its fortune in the middle of the technology supply chain, where enterprise buyers need a trusted partner to make complex systems work.
As AI spending grew, WWT moved early, announcing a $500 million investment in a new St. Louis AI lab where clients can test AI systems before buying them. Our full profile of how David Steward built a billion-dollar tech empire traces how patient, relationship-driven growth produced the largest company on this list.
2. Flutterwave: The Payments Rail
Flutterwave, led by co-founder and CEO Olugbenga “GB” Agboola, processes payments for businesses across Africa and between Africa and the rest of the world.
In June 2026, it closed a Series E round at a $3.25 billion valuation, with Ripple taking a direct equity stake, according to Techsoma Africa’s report on the Ripple investment.
Flutterwave’s power comes from owning the rails. Every business that moves money through its system pays a small fee, and those fees compound as commerce grows.
A company that controls how money moves sits in a stronger position than one that only sells to the people moving it. That pattern also explains how African tech funds are quietly building influence in Silicon Valley.
3. Moniepoint: The Small Business Bank
Tosin Eniolorunda founded the company that became Moniepoint in 2015, and it now powers a large share of in-person payments in Nigeria.
Moniepoint processed about $297 billion in transactions in 2025, according to Billionaires.Africa’s report on Moniepoint’s 2025 volume. It reached unicorn status in late 2024 in a funding round that included Google, and Visa later joined as an investor.
The lesson is focus. Moniepoint won by serving small businesses that traditional banks overlooked, including market stalls, bakeries and fuel stations.
Serving the overlooked customer well can produce a larger business than chasing the customer everyone else already wants.
4. Calendly: The Product Company
Tope Awotona started Calendly in Atlanta in 2013 after watching endless emails go back and forth just to schedule a meeting.
The company reached a valuation of more than $3 billion in 2021, as Black Enterprise reported on Calendly’s valuation, and it added AI meeting features in 2026.
Calendly shows the power of one problem solved extremely well. Awotona reportedly put his own savings into the early product and grew it through users sharing scheduling links with each other, so every customer became a distribution channel.
Our profile of the strategy behind Tope Awotona’s billion-dollar company breaks that growth model down in detail.
5. Cityblock Health: The Health Care Builder
Dr. Toyin Ajayi co-founded Cityblock Health to deliver care to Medicaid patients, a population most health tech companies avoided. Axios reported the company’s value at about $6 billion when it named Toyin Ajayi CEO.
In 2026, Cityblock uses AI agents to contact members after enrollment or hospital discharge, flagging needs like food or housing and passing summaries to care coordinators, according to HIT Consultant’s coverage of Cityblock’s Medicaid AI blueprint.
The lesson is that a hard market can become a protected market. Medicaid care is complex, regulated and slow to change. A company that masters it builds expertise competitors can’t copy quickly.
6. Esusu: The Credit Builder
Wemimo Abbey co-founded Esusu in 2018 with Samir Goel to help renters build credit by reporting on-time rent payments to the credit bureaus.
The company reached a $1.2 billion valuation after a $50 million Series C in December 2025, and its reporting covers about 5 million rental units, according to Fortune’s profile of Esusu’s co-founders.
In 2025 alone, the company says, more than 272,000 renters established a credit score for the first time.
Esusu turned a financial blind spot into a business. Rent is often a household’s largest monthly payment, yet for decades it did little for credit.
That gap mattered most to communities with thin credit files, the same problem we address in our business funding roadmap for Black and Latino entrepreneurs.
7. PrimalMogul AI: The Business Intelligence Platform
Disclosure: this is our company. It is early-stage and far smaller than the others on this list. We include it because it represents a lane the list would otherwise miss.
PrimalMogul AI is a business and leadership intelligence platform for entrepreneurs who want to build profitable businesses.
Founded by Jamal “Sultan” Leigh, a former mortgage executive with more than 25 years in finance and digital business, it began development in June 2024 and has been built without venture capital. In a year when Black-led startups received about a third of one percent of U.S. venture dollars, that bootstrapped path is part of the story.
The platform’s depth sits in how its pieces connect:
- Thirteen AI tools in two layers. Seven flagship advisors handle daily work: PrimalMogul AI, Chairman AI, MogulVision AI, PrimalTech AI, PrimalWealth AI, PrimalBroker AI and PrimalCourses AI. Above them sits the six-seat High Council of Chairman, CEO, CFO, CMO, CTO and CCO AI.
- Company Memory. The advisors share Company Memory, so each one remembers a member’s business, goals and past decisions instead of starting from zero every session.
- A deep knowledge base. More than 1,000 embedded pages and documents, plus the Mogul Vault of roughly 700 Power Posts, guides and resources, ground the advisors in PrimalMogul’s own research.
- Diagnostics before advice. Members work through structured tools such as the 70-question Funding Roadmap and the LLC Launch Guide, so recommendations start from a clear picture of the business.
The philosophy behind it is Business Intelligence Before Automation.
Owners should understand a decision before they automate it or pay for it, and the platform’s operating line puts that into practice: Diagnose. Decide. Delegate. Verify. The full range of PrimalMogul AI tools is built around that sequence.
What separates this lane from the others is culture. Most business software treats entrepreneurs as interchangeable.
PrimalMogul is built for entrepreneurs whose path to capital, credit and ownership looks different, and it writes from that history instead of around it. Mogul OS, a BoardRoom dashboard tracking each member company’s numbers, is coming soon.
8. SambaNova: The AI Computing Power
Stanford professor Kunle Olukotun co-founded SambaNova in 2017 with Rodrigo Liang and Christopher RĂ©. The company builds chips and systems that run large AI models.
In February 2026, SambaNova raised more than $350 million in a Series E led by Vista Equity Partners and Cambium Capital, with Intel Capital participating as part of a broader partnership, according to Tech Company News’ report on the SambaNova Series E.
SambaNova sits at the deepest layer of the AI economy, the computing power every model needs.
Vista Equity Partners, the firm Robert F. Smith built, leading the round adds another connection worth noticing; our report on how Robert F. Smith is building an AI empire with Vista Equity Partners explains the strategy.
9. Harper: The AI-Native Service Company
Dakotah Rice co-founded Harper, an AI-run commercial insurance agency that connects small and mid-sized businesses with more than 160 insurance carriers.
In February 2026, Harper raised $47 million in a round led by Emergence Capital, described as the largest publicly disclosed Series A ever raised by a Black founder in the U.S., according to UrbanGeekz’ coverage of the Harper raise.
The company reports serving more than 5,000 businesses in its first 13 months.
Harper points to the next model. Instead of selling software to insurance brokers, it became the brokerage and used AI agents to do the paperwork that slows the industry down. Entrepreneurs exploring that path should study how Black founders build AI agents with Claude Code.
What These Nine Companies Teach About Building Tech Power
Look across the list and four patterns appear.
Infrastructure outlasts trends. WWT, Flutterwave, Moniepoint and SambaNova all sit underneath other businesses. When an economy grows, the companies that carry its traffic grow with it.
Overlooked customers are an opening. Moniepoint’s market traders, Cityblock’s Medicaid patients and Esusu’s renters were all underserved. Each company turned that neglect into a market.
Capital choices set the ownership. WWT grew largely on its own revenue, while most of the others raised large venture rounds. Every round speeds growth and reduces the founder’s share, a trade-off we explore in how to build a Black-owned business that thrives without investors.
AI is now the second lane in every company. Calendly added AI features, Cityblock uses AI agents and Harper is built on them. The question for new companies is no longer whether to use AI, but where it creates leverage.
What This Means for the PrimalMogul Reader
- Pick your lane before your product. Each company here chose a position, such as infrastructure, service or software, before it chose features.
- Know what you give up for capital. Understand ownership, dilution and control before you take outside money.
- Serve the customer others skip. Underserved markets are often less crowded and more loyal.
- Use AI where it changes the economics. Harper’s advantage isn’t AI itself. It is lower cost per customer served.
- Bootstrapping is a strategy, not a fallback. With venture dollars this scarce, building on revenue keeps the ownership in your hands.
These lessons connect. The strongest companies on this list chose a position, protected their ownership where they could and used technology to widen their margin. That sequence is available to any entrepreneur willing to study it.
Mogul Frequently Asked Questions
What is the largest Black-owned tech company?
World Wide Technology, co-founded by David Steward in 1990, is generally recognized as the largest Black-owned company in the U.S., with roughly $20 billion in annual revenue.
Which Black-founded tech companies are worth over $1 billion?
Flutterwave, Moniepoint, Calendly, Cityblock Health and Esusu have all reached valuations above $1 billion, based on their most recent reported funding rounds.
What is the difference between Black-owned and Black-founded?
A Black-owned company is controlled by Black shareholders. A Black-founded company was started by a Black entrepreneur but may be partly or mostly owned by outside investors after funding rounds.
How much venture capital do Black founders receive?
U.S. startups with a Black founder or co-founder raised about $942 million in 2025, roughly 0.32% of all U.S. venture funding, according to Crunchbase.
Are there Black-owned AI companies?
Yes. SambaNova (AI chips, co-founded by Kunle Olukotun), Harper (an AI-run insurance brokerage) and PrimalMogul AI (business and leadership intelligence) are examples at very different stages.
Power Conclusion
Lists like this one usually end with applause. This one ends with a method. Each company here answered the same questions every entrepreneur faces: where to stand in the market, how to pay for growth and how much ownership to keep.
David Steward answered with patience and position. Tope Awotona answered with one problem solved better than anyone else. Harper answered by putting AI at the center of a service business.
The next entry on a list like this will come from someone who studies those answers and applies them to a market nobody else is watching. Start by deciding which lane you’re in.
Build Your Company With the BoardRoom Behind You
The companies on this list had boards, advisors and experts helping them make the big decisions on capital, structure and growth. Most entrepreneurs face those same decisions alone. The BoardRoom Council, your private AI board of directors, gives you a seat at that table from day one.
- Six High Council seats on every big decision: Chairman, CEO, CFO, CMO, CTO and CCO AI review your plan from every angle before you commit.
- Capital readiness before you raise: the 70-question Funding Roadmap and the BoardRoom Funding Resource Directory help you understand your options, including when not to give up equity.
- Company Memory that grows with you: your advisors remember your business, so every conversation builds on the last.
Compare the Elite membership tier and the BoardRoom tier on the PrimalMogul membership levels page, or start with the free Business Power Audit.
Research, Sources and Disclosure:
- Crunchbase News: Venture Dollars for Black Startup Founders Stay Scarce Despite AI Funding Boom
- Black America Web: The Richest Black-Owned Businesses
- World Wide Technology: WWT to Invest a Half Billion Dollars in a New St. Louis AI Lab
- Techsoma Africa: Ripple Takes Equity Stake in Flutterwave as African Fintech Raises Series E at $3.25 Billion Valuation
- Billionaires.Africa: Nigerian Entrepreneur Tosin Eniolorunda’s Moniepoint Processed $297 Billion in 2025
- Black Enterprise: Black-Owned Tech Company Calendly Surpasses $3 Billion Valuation
- Axios: $6B Cityblock Health Names Toyin Ajayi CEO
- HIT Consultant: Cityblock Health CEO Dr. Toyin Ajayi Releases Blueprint for AI in Medicaid
- Fortune: Esusu Co-Founders Wemimo Abbey and Samir Goel
- Tech Company News: SambaNova Raises $350 Million in Series E Financing
- UrbanGeekz: YC-Backed Harper Raises $47M to Build AI Insurance Brokerage
Disclosure: Valuations come from the companies’ most recent reported funding rounds and may have changed; private companies do not publish audited results. “Black-owned” in the title follows common usage; several companies on this list are Black-founded or co-founded and partly owned by outside investors, as explained above.
