Code2040 raises $5.6 million from The Knight Foundation and others

Code2040, founded by Laura Weidman Powers and Tristan Walker, recently raised $5.6 million to advance its diversity and inclusion efforts in technology. The latest funding comes from The Knight Foundation, The Sara and Evan Williams Foundation and others, and brings Code2040's total funding raised to more than $7 million.

Code2040’s Fellows program, which first launched in 2012, specifically places students in career-building workshops and internships at top tech companies. Since its founding, hundreds of black and Latinx students have gone through the summer career accelerator and have interned at companies like Apple, LinkedIn, Facebook and Jawbone.

Code2040 plans to use the funding to continue its expansion in New York City, which it announced plans for in August, grow its community of members from 5,000 to 40,000 by 2020 and expand its D&I work inside companies like Airbnb, Lyft and Slack.

"As all companies — regardless of size and industry — increasingly rely on technology and technologists to help them accomplish their goals, their ability to build an inclusive culture will be an even greater competitive advantage to attract and retain the best talent," Code2040 Senior Director of Development Alex Trabulsi wrote on the organization's blog. "We know this requires an industry-wide cultural shift, and we’ve learned a ton about what works and what doesn’t in the years we’ve been doing this."