October 23, 2025
Elite Media’s first-ever “Hold It 100” pitch competitors awarded $100,000 to 5 Black-owned companies.
5 Black-owned companies just lately acquired a share of a $100,000 funding from Elite Media, a part of the firm’s effort to encourage trade leaders to assist creators who push the tradition and group ahead.
On Oct. 17, MADE, a verification system designed to safeguard Black creativity, gained the inaugural “Hold It 100” Pitch Competitors hosted by Elite Media. The announcement was made at The One Membership’s “The place Are All of the Black Folks” Convention in New York Metropolis.
Elite Media Founder and CEO Chris Crawford joined a panel of judges for the competitors and took middle stage to current $50,000 to Tommy Johnson, founder and CEO of MADE, together with $12,500 every to the 4 different finalists.
“The ‘Hold It 100’ pitch competitors celebrates the ability of consideration, the ability of function, the ability of supporting each other,” Crawford mentioned in an announcement. “Immediately, the group gained. Each contestant introduced it. Their audacity and ambition was on full show. We’re proud to assist this inaugural group of creators, innovators, and entrepreneurs deliver their visionary concepts to life.”
MADE was chosen partly for its mission to uplift Black-owned companies and shield Black creativity. The platform stood out amongst pitches from Mec Zilla, founding father of CrackedVC, a brand new system designed to interchange conventional enterprise capital; Morgan Means, CEO and founding father of Evental, a digital market that helps suppliers monetize stock and provide real-time pricing and reserving; Adam Franklin of Twendi, a sports activities media platform highlighting African and diaspora athletes via cinematic short-form storytelling; and Ayo Abigail, director of Technique and Outreach for Stroll of Identical, a model pioneering “empowerment jewellery” that fuses style with function.
Every finalist acquired monetary assist from Elite Media, a Black-owned, women-led promoting company primarily based in Harlem dedicated to serving to creators deliver their visions to life. The $100,000 in prize cash got here straight from the corporate’s personal company funds, half of a bigger problem to advertisers, manufacturers, and trade leaders to match Elite’s funding in creators, entrepreneurs, and concepts that transfer tradition and group ahead.
“The time for disruption is now–our communities deserve motion,“ Crawford mentioned when saying the pitch competitors final month. “We’re placing our cash the place our mouth is, already investing upwards of $2 million of our personal company {dollars} again into the Harlem group that nurtures us. We see the chance to broaden that affect throughout the advert trade, deliberately in non-traditional areas. We at the moment are difficult the trade and convening areas to maneuver previous the self-importance metrics and create real-time domino results of change that can rework communities.”
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