Divine (Victor D. Lombard)
CEO & Founder of BLAK Fintech
Divine is a disruptor in every sense of the word. A former drug dealer, and Hip-Hop/Rap recording artist turned “techpreneur”. He appeared on the tech community radar in 2014 when he reached out to billionaire and famed Silicon Valley venture capitalist Ben Horowitz, Co-Founder of Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), on social media via Twitter, and the two eventually became friends.
With only an 8th grade formal education and no tech background, a year later, Divine officially entered tech when he founded his first financial services and technology startup, BLAK Fintech (BLAK). BLAK is an acronym that stands for Building Leverage Acquiring Knowledge. BLAK builds affordable tech-driven personal financial and banking products with a focus on the financially excluded and disadvantaged Unbanked and Underbanked.
His extraordinary story of meeting Ben and entrepreneurial journey that followed, has been featured via such media outlets as Tech Crunch, Forbes, Black Enterprise, Entrepreneur, Inc., The Karen Hunter Show on SiriusXM Urban View, Breaking Banks with Brett King and American Banker. He has been featured at numerous events focused on diversity and inclusion in tech. This year, he was selected as a keynote speaker by Georgia State University’s Entrepreneurship & Innovation Institute’s Russell Center, for their inaugural Influential Speaker Series, and for the annual event, France Fintech: Revolution held in Paris.
Being a formerly incarcerated individual, Divine is now an advocate against mass incarceration and for criminal justice reform. He is a brand ambassador for The Last Mile organization. As an inspirational speaker, Divine now utilizes his life story and journey of redemption to inspire others worldwide. He is currently writing a book and recently had a screenplay completed on his life for a feature film.