Meet the New AI Tycoons: 12 Black-Owned AI Startups You Must Know in 2025
Introduction: Here are the 12 Black-Owned AI Startups
2025 is not just a chapter in the history of Black technology entrepreneurship: it’s the new playbook. Black founders are building, scaling, and transforming entire industries through artificial intelligence, showing the world that culture and code can work together as tools for both profit and social change.
The power shift is clear. You can see it in the headlines, the funding rounds, the conference panels, and most importantly: in the solutions that real people use every day.
This Power Post gives you a close look at the 12 Black-Owned AI startups changing the narrative, why their approach works, and how the Primal Mogul community can use these examples as a map to create the next wave of leaders and innovators.
Why This Matters
AI is the engine that powers business, media, health, government, and entertainment. For decades, Black founders hit a wall: locked out by old boys’ networks, venture gatekeepers, and an ecosystem slow to recognize innovation from outside the usual circles.
That era is cracking. Now, investors are actively seeking out Black founders, especially those who tackle daily struggles with new solutions. From getting a loan to booking a doctor, from vending snacks to reading contracts, these new startups are proving that “solve the pain, earn the gain” is still the law.
2025’s momentum is being built on companies that create new value for underserved communities and mainstream markets at the same time.
But it’s deeper than market share. Technology determines whose voice gets heard, who makes the rules, who has options, and who builds wealth. These startups are rewriting how systems work and who benefits from them.
Every win is a model for other creators, and every mistake becomes a lesson that lifts the culture. The smartest move now is to study the innovators who are closest to the streets, then use those lessons to dominate in new and emerging sectors.
New AI Startups in 2025: The Fresh Builders
SGIQ Business Solutions: Shaun Jeffries & Gary Lovelace
SGIQ doesn’t just show up as an outsourced AI department. They become a growth partner for small businesses, especially those overlooked by Silicon Valley.
Shaun Jeffries and Gary Lovelace designed the company to meet owners where they are helping them identify operational bottlenecks, design automation flows, and boost efficiency using plain language and real-life examples.
Their client list stretches from barbershops and local law offices to growing tech-enabled retailers. In 2025, SGIQ has started hosting city-level workshops and webinars, making AI tangible for entrepreneurs with no coding background.
Impact: The rise of “accessible AI” shows that the best consulting firms don’t just talk systems, they deliver outcomes for people who have been denied a seat at the table.
Ourfreedom.ai
Incarcerated families have always faced high costs and limited access to digital communication. Ourfreedom.ai attacks this issue with an affordable, easy-to-use platform. Beyond connecting people with loved ones inside, the startup is building partnerships with nonprofits, re-entry organizations, and state agencies to support a national roll-out.
By February 2025, their $500,000 funding goal was on track, with strong demand from community groups and progressive policymakers. Their AI-driven messaging system not only cuts costs but also delivers secure, private connections that bypass the usual profit-driven prison phone contracts.
Impact: Shows that “tech for good” is more than a slogan: it’s a market advantage. When you give people what they actually need, adoption happens fast and media follows.
Plainr: Lydia Ofori
Financial services firms are drowning in data and regulatory complexity. Plainr, founded by Lydia Ofori, turns that chaos into clarity. Using advanced AI systems, Plainr brings structure to messy investor data, connects information across platforms, and turns analytics into actionable recommendations.
The startup closed major funding through TEDCO and other pitch competitions in late 2024, using 2025 to expand their engineering team and secure new enterprise clients. Plainr’s solution is now being piloted by investment advisors, fintech firms, and asset managers across the country.
Impact: Lydia Ofori’s approach proves that regulated industries are open to change if you make compliance and insights easy. Investors are watching fintech, but Plainr is leading with results.
Myavana: Candace Mitchell Harris
Hair care is a billion-dollar business, but few companies understand the diversity of Black hair. Myavana, under Candace Mitchell Harris, built the “Hair AI”: a system that analyzes hair texture from a single photo and recommends the best products. 2025 saw Myavana deepen partnerships with big retailers like Ulta and international beauty distributors.
The opening of a physical store in Uganda brought the brand’s reach to global levels, while new research collaborations with scientists are improving the AI engine. The company’s app downloads and product sales hit record highs this year.
Impact: When culture meets data science, it can power global growth. Myavana’s traction is living proof that tech rooted in real community knowledge scales beyond borders.
Established AI Startups Scaling in 2025: The Builders With Receipts
Drivingo: Levern Currie
Fast-food drive-thrus are everywhere, but few are accessible for the hearing-impaired. Drivingo solves this with gesture-recognition tech that translates hand signals into drive-thru orders. Their pilot programs with major fast-food brands have led to rapid adoption.
In 2025, Drivingo started collaborating with advocacy groups to update their system for use in public kiosks and transportation hubs, showing the flexibility of their AI models.
Impact: Accessibility is a billion-dollar market, not just a checkbox. Tech that removes barriers will always be in demand.
Robin AI: Richard Robinson
Robin AI is tackling the legal bottleneck. Small businesses waste hours and cash reviewing contracts. Robin AI’s platform automates this, making legal review faster and more accurate. In 2025, they landed contracts with regional banks and midsize law firms looking to lower costs.
The company is releasing a library of legal playbooks this year, aiming to educate non-lawyers about their rights and risks.
Impact: AI for law is still wide open. The first to blend software and legal expertise with business education will dominate.
PopCom: Dawn Dickson
PopCom’s vending technology is everywhere in 2025, from airports and colleges to Black-owned businesses on Main Street. Their AI-driven machines do more than sell snacks: they learn from buyer habits, customize offers, and collect data to help brands refine product launches.
The company just secured a partnership with a global beverage giant and is piloting “PopCom Labs,” a program for independent creators to test retail products. PopCom is defining what modern vending looks like.
Impact: Retail will always need innovation. If you control both the physical and digital shelf, you own the market.
HacWare: Tiffany Ricks
Phishing attacks and social engineering scams are rising. HacWare’s security platform, led by Tiffany Ricks, uses machine learning to spot threats before they reach your inbox.
Their product suite expanded in 2025 to cover mobile security and training modules for staff in health, finance, and education. HacWare’s Google Black Founders Fund win in 2023 still pays dividends, as the company continues to win government and enterprise contracts.
Impact: Cybersecurity is recession-proof. Companies must protect data, and the best defense is an evolving, AI-powered offense.
Elis: Kene Anoliefo
Understanding customer needs is more urgent than ever. Elis applies AI to streamline customer interviews, pulling insights that let product and marketing teams move fast.
In 2025, Elis expanded integrations with major survey and CRM platforms, pushing their product deeper into SaaS and agency workflows. The company’s partnerships with educational organizations highlight how customer research is not just for business: it’s for anyone designing experiences.
Impact: The new economy is data-driven. Companies that make sense of feedback faster win the race to relevance.
Hire Henry: George Holmes
Manufacturing and logistics are starved for labor, but robots are expensive. Hire Henry, founded by George Holmes, delivers AI-powered robots for small and midsize factories, filling roles that are dangerous or repetitive.
In 2025, Hire Henry opened a second facility, cut delivery times, and piloted “robot rental” plans. Their focus on affordability is shifting the automation landscape for Black-owned and rural businesses.
Impact: Robotics isn’t just for the Fortune 500. If you can lower the entry cost, you can change who benefits from automation.
Sensagrate: Darryl Keeton
As cities invest in smarter traffic management, Sensagrate stands out for applying computer vision to real-world problems. The company’s AI platform helps planners analyze traffic flows, predict congestion, and design safer streets.
In 2025, Sensagrate started major pilots with cities in the Midwest and Southeast, while expanding its consulting arm to offer data-backed infrastructure recommendations.
Impact: Smart city tech is not science fiction. It’s the future of public spending and whoever shapes the infrastructure, shapes the market.
ReviewTailor: Kristin Bell & Laneisha Roberts
Performance reviews are often biased, slow, and outdated. ReviewTailor’s AI-driven system collects feedback, tracks performance trends, and generates transparent evaluation reports.
2025 saw the launch of a mobile app, a Spanish-language version, and new analytics dashboards for managers.
HR consultants and businesses are making ReviewTailor a must-have for upgrading internal culture and compliance.
Impact: The back office is full of untapped value. Tech that improves how people are hired, trained, and promoted changes an organization from the inside out.
Key Growth Sectors for Black Founders in AI (2025)
The Markets That Matter
- Accessibility Tech: Drivingo, Ourfreedom.ai, and others are proving that inclusion is not only a human right: it’s a huge business opportunity. Tech that improves everyday life will always have customers and champions.
- Legal Tech: Robin AI shows that contract automation and compliance tools will become standard for any business, big or small. The law will reward those who make legal support affordable and fair.
- Retail & Beauty AI: Myavana and PopCom blend cultural insight with technology, disrupting how consumers find products and brands reach audiences. Owning the connection between consumer and product is the new marketing edge.
- Cybersecurity AI: HacWare’s expansion into mobile and training shows that every device, every user, every business is now a potential target and solution providers will keep growing as threats evolve.
- Industrial Robotics: Hire Henry’s robot rental and automation services are moving robotics from a luxury to a necessity for growing businesses in tough markets.
- Fintech & Data AI: Plainr and Elis point to a new phase of fintech, where the winners help organizations make data-driven decisions without deep technical teams.
- Smart Cities & Transportation AI: Sensagrate and similar platforms are influencing how governments spend, design, and serve the public. The fact is long-term AI markets that need innovation now.
Deeper Lessons for Primal Mogul Members
Translate Game Into Growth
- Solve urgent, specific problems. Each company started with a pain point and built out solutions that scale.
- Build with culture, not just code. Myavana and PopCom show the edge comes from understanding your customer, not just the technology.
- Profit by closing access gaps. Drivingo and Ourfreedom.ai built models around groups ignored by the mainstream, turning exclusion into demand.
- Show receipts. Funding, partnerships, client wins. Learn to track your receipts and make them visible.
- Get focused and stay focused. Every founder here defined their target market and didn’t chase every trend.
- Execution over invention. No one needed to invent something from scratch: many won by applying existing AI tools in overlooked markets.
- Document and upgrade. Whether building software or vending snacks, the best in this class are tracking what works, improving every quarter, and building systems, not just moments.
The Digital Mirror: How to Build Revenue AI Chatbots in 2025
Primal Mogul members: imagine your AI chatbots as a trusted employees: AI systems that works 24/7, greets every visitor, answers questions, and sells products while you sleep.
The value comes from the quality of your training data, the logic of your conversation routes, and the pages where your bot operates.
Think of the bot as the “attendant,” your FAQ and policies as the “fuel,” and your website or app as the “station.”
The Seven-Point Beginner System
- Define one core objective: Is the bot for sales, support, or education? Name the outcome.
- Collect your top answers and policies: Give the AI Chatbot clear information and keep it updated.
- Write a tight role and tone doc: List what the bot can and can’t say; make sure it fits your brand.
- Map three main routes: What are the top questions, what do buyers ask, how does support work?
- Design safe handoffs: Flag sensitive issues for human review; never let the bot freestyle medical or legal advice.
- Install the bot only on pages with high intent: Don’t put it everywhere, focus on places where visitors take action.
- Review and refine weekly: Check transcripts, tweak scripts, add missing answers. Your bot should get smarter every month.
If you want to move from a “good enough” AI Chatbot to a revenue powerhouse, the advanced guides, private prompt stacks, and screen-by-screen instructions are locked in the Primal Mogul course and membership.
Tech Moguls: Ready to Build With Precision?
If you want a AI chatbots that does more than answer questions: one that closes sales, captures leads, and protects your brand: get inside the course and membership.
Don’t settle for bots that waste your visitors’ time. Move like the new AI tycoons: design, execute, upgrade.
Three Concrete Membership Benefits
- Revenue Chatbot Kit: The full system: conversation maps, templates, and step-by-step playbooks for any industry.
- Hands-on Demonstrations: Full video guides, install walkthroughs, and form setups to capture more business and keep data safe.
- Vault Access: Private Power Posts, expert checklists, and members-only custom AI tools that help you update, scale, and protect your chatbot and your business, month after month.
Conclusion: A Blueprint for the Next Black Tech Renaissance
The stories above are more than receipts. They are a playbook for those ready to build. Every startup listed here started small, moved with discipline, and scaled by solving real problems.
Culture, discipline, systems, receipts: these are the assets. In 2025 and beyond, you can either watch from the sidelines or step onto the field.
The new Black AI tycoons are already shaping the future. The only question left is: will you build with them or let someone else write your story?
Primal Mogul Elite
