Meet Woman Behind First Black-Owned Contact Lens Manufacturer

Dr. Shante Williams is co-founder and CEO of Black Pearl Global Investments, a healthcare venture firm.

One of its latest investments is the acquisition of Hydrogel Vision Corp (HVC) based in Florida, becoming the world’s first black-owned, woman-owned contact lens manufacturer in the world. The asset management firm invests in companies innovating in the health space.

 HVC is known for its ultra-hydrating contact lens that retains moisture and provides various options for people with smaller or narrower eyelids. 

“We’re looking forward to helping to deliver more responsive vision products for people of colour and bringing more diversity to the optometry space,” Dr Williams told People of Color in Tech.

“Globally, we want to help more people see clearly, including providing better diagnoses, accessing providers, and delivering medications. So we will continue to push forward with research and development on the material as well as the manufacturing process.” 

Dr Williams is a distinguished venture capitalist, business owner, inventor, intellectual property strategist, and private investor. She combines her passion for innovation and scientific knowledge to solve complex health, finance and real estate problems.

Prior to co-founding Black Pearl Global Investments, she worked as a medical doctor and was widely acknowledged for her stellar discovery of innovative chemotherapy treatments for high-grade invasive brain tumours, her LinkedIn profile shows.

Dr Williams previously served as the Vice President of Technology Acquisition in the Healthcare sector, the Director of Mergers and Acquisitions in the Consumer Healthcare Industry, and even the Director of Intellectual Property in the Electric Drive Vehicle Industry.

Following a staler career in corporate America, she decided to go solo and be her own boss. This led her to start RW Capital Partners. In no time, the company became an industry-leading firm specializing in Real Estate, Technology Development, Start-up/Stand-up, and Business Disputes Resolution.

She continues to break barriers through the founding of Black Pearl Global Investments which seeks to reduce health disparities across the globe through the founding of Black Pearl Global Investments.

The firm brings investment, medical, technology, and health expertise to the table. “In 2020, digital health start-ups in the USA attracted a record US$14 billion of investment capital, in the largest funding year on record. Jamaica is rich with brilliant innovators and yet funding is only starting to see traction,” Dr Williams said, according to the Jamaican Observer.

On her LinkedIn page, Dr Williams says she serves the community as Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Charlotte Mecklenburg Black Chamber of Commerce and Heal Charlotte, a non-profit dedicated to holistic community change.

Also, she is on a Community Advisory Board Member for the local NPR affiliate WFAE 90.7, and a Community advisor for Shelter to Shutters, a non-profit that deploys marketplace solutions to solve homelessness.