Tech and business efforts in Detroit have received a significant investment.

The Detroit Free Press reports that the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation (Knight Foundation) has committed $19.8 million in grants to support 12 Detroit projects to create a “vibrant and thriving city,” according to Maribel Pérez Wadsworth, the foundation’s president and CEO. Established in 1950, the foundation has deployed $215 million in grants to support Detroit with a focus on downtown revitalization. The latest commitment brings attention to the city’s “inner-ring neighborhoods,” to uplift art, public spaces, tech, and business.

“By focusing on these areas, we create opportunities for connection, we help preserve vital history for the community, we provide ways for the community to really access one another and the downtown core,” Wadsworth said, according to Detroit Free Press. “Now what we’re doing with this latest run of investments is really expand from there — to come out to the next inner ring of neighborhoods around downtown, and continue to build on the success that we’ve seen.”

Recipients of the grant include Black Tech Saturdays, a nationally recognized innovation community that caters to all ages and aims to strengthen the footprint of Black people in tech through actionable measures such as workshops and training, youth STEM events, mentorship and coaching, community outreach, and advocacy and awareness, according to its website. Its next event, the Detroit Digital Empowerment Summit, will touch down in the city Sept. 26-27 for a two-day event highlighting technology and innovation. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, married couple Johnnie and Alexa Turnage created Black Tech Saturdays in collaboration with Michigan Economic Development Corp. and held their first event in 2023.

“We’re an 80% Black city, but until we started having [Black Tech Saturdays], most of the tech entrepreneurs weren’t in predominantly Black spaces,” Johnnie said in a past interview with AFROTECH™.

Black Tech Saturdays, which has impacted more than 20,000 people, has been supported with a $2 million grant from The Knight Foundation. The boost will help residents by creating pathways towards high-growth jobs and entrepreneurship. The funding will also achieve its goal of reaching $10 million in income opportunities through digital infrastructure, hosting events, and storytelling.

Other recipients of grants include Rootoftwo via CultureSource — The Transformer Building, which secured $500,000 to convert the building into a tech lab for “public problem-solving,” and Black Leaders Detroit, which received $1 million to launch a no-interest loan program for developers and entrepreneurs that will support more than 30 residential projects and 150 jobs.

“We’re here to support the amazing, creative, passionate people who are Detroiters, who have the ideas about what it is that their community needs in order to continue to thrive,” Wadsworth told the Free Press. “Knight’s role here is really only to serve as the wind at the back of these amazing people who care so much about their community. So every one of the decisions about where we invest is driven, first and foremost, by the people of Detroit.”