The digital services company Fearless is expanding into two business divisions, having secured $17 million in financing to help fuel their future growth strategy.
Fearless focuses on government technology and has established a new division called “Fearless Guides” to help expand its impact internationally and reach its goal of $1 billion in revenue.
“For the past 14 years, Fearless has been using technology to make an impact in the lives of our customers and the people they serve. During this next phase of our growth, tech will continue to be a core part of how we make a difference, but it’s not what will be driving our work,” said Delali Dzirasa, Fearless founder and CEO. “The future of Fearless will be about the impact we make, not the tech we build. It’s easy to say you want to make a difference. Our goal is to actually move the needle in our core focus areas of efficient government, social justice, human life, and quality living.”
Fearless was founded in 2009 as a digital services company serving government customers and is now moving beyond technology and government. “This new structure, Fearless Digital and Fearless Guides, adds in people and organizational enablement services as a larger impact company,” reads the press release announcing the expansion.
To achieve this greater impact, Fearless set three goals to achieve by the year 2030:
- To improve 100 million lives
- To be positioned in 10 countries
- To generate $1 billion in revenue
The newly secured $17 million in funds comes from Truist Bank and the Maryland Small Business Development Authority (MSBDFA.) Fearless hopes to raise another $10 million of capital by the end of the year.
“BIPOC entrepreneurs face many barriers, and one of the biggest is lack of access to capital. Representation matters, so we hope our success in this initial round of financing can serve as inspiration to others,” Dzirasa said. “We couldn’t have gotten where we are today without the support of others, and community is only going to be more important as we move forward in our vision for the future. To make the widespread impact in our core focus areas that we want, we can’t do it alone. We hope everyone — whether they’re investors, future team members, or customers — will join us on this journey. Together, we can change the world.”
Fearless plans to expand its services to help organizations develop their people, organizational operations, and strategies, integrating the tech and organizational sides to solve its customers’ problems.
“By becoming what it’s calling a ‘digital services integrator,’ Fearless is combining the scalability of traditional systems integrators with modern digital services capabilities. The model is designed to overcome both the tech and organizational blockers that so often derail digital transformation efforts. Through it, Fearless is building up tech, people, and organizations for accelerated, sustainable impact,” read the press release.
“Truist is deeply honored to partner with Fearless, a visionary leader in the Baltimore business community, as their values seamlessly align with our commitment to inspiring and building better lives and communities,” said Jay Turakhia, Truist Market President. “Their remarkable journey is a shining example of what can be achieved when purpose and profit harmonize for the greater good.”
“The Maryland Small Business Development Financing Authority (MSBDFA) and the Maryland Department of Commerce are proud to assist a dynamic business such as Fearless and its insightful leadership in creating more productive work and learning environments for all,” said Randy Croxton, Senior Vice President, Meridian Management Group. “We look forward to Fearless becoming a world leader in developing technology solutions that lead to the creation of exciting new jobs in Maryland.”
Fearless Digital, the tech division, will continue to “build software with a soul.” Fearless Guides, the people and organization enablement division, will focus on creating the conditions for organizations and their employees to thrive.
Dzirasa will remain as CEO and John Foster, COO, has been named Chief Impact Officer.
“We’re facing some enormous, urgent problems in our society – loss of life, inefficient government, social injustice, lack of quality living,” Foster said. “As business leaders, we have a responsibility to use all the tools at our disposal to solve these big problems; we can’t continue to rely on the nonprofit sector to do this. To harness the power of business for good, we have to align impact and profit.”
“Fearless has never been a conventional kind of company. We’ve always been fearless in our belief that we could help build a better tomorrow. We can’t be timid as we address problems with our civic services or public health,” Dzirasa said. “We can’t play it safe when we’re fighting for social justice. Today’s problems require us to be fearless. And we plan to continue to be just that. We have established that we’re fearless to build better tech for our government and the people they serve. Now, we’re going to be fearless to build a better world.”
Fearless is Baltimore-based, minority-owned, and has won a host of awards for ingenuity and workplace culture. In 2017 they were named the Best Service Company at the Maryland Incubator Company of the Year Awards, by 2021 they were the 5th largest minority-owned business in the Greater Baltimore Region. Also in 2021 they were named one of Maryland’s Coolest Spaces by the Daily Record, and Fearless and Hutch received GBE Bridging the Gap Achievement awards for mentorship in the Baltimore tech community.
