Lillii RNB Inc., a retail fraud detection, prevention and data services firm, today announced the closing of its $3 million seed round co-led by Serena Ventures and Aperture Venture Capital. Lillii RNB’s proprietary Returns Management and Total Retail Loss platform,

Fraudulent returns cost big box retailers a large chunk of money every year — a recent study found that retailers lose more than $9 billion from fraudulent returns a year. Just from last holiday season, retailers estimated that more than 5 percent of holiday returns are expected to be fraudulent.

When the idea that would become Freeing Returns launched several years back, e-commerce fraud was already wreaking havoc on retailers of all sizes. But as COVID made e-commerce a more central part of the retail process, the overall number of returns has skyrocketed to upwards of $761 billion worth of merchandise in 2021 alone.

Barbara Jones is no stranger to perseverance: the Texas Computer Science (TXCS) alumna, who graduated from the university in 1998, earned her degree at a time where “there were probably four Black people in the whole computer science department.” With over 20 years of experience in the technology industry,

The second iteration of Google For Startups Black Founders Found is a lesson in the power of community. The 76 founders in the inaugural 2020 cohort were asked to nominate their startup peers to take part in the fund in 2021. 50 of those candidates were selected and will receive up to $100,000 in capital along with additional credits and services from Google.

Today we’d like to introduce you to Barbara Jones. Barbara, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today. As the first person in my family to graduate from College, I have always been an avid learner. As a kid, I loved to read and would spend most summer vacations reading books.

With 20 years of experience in retail technology, Barbara Jones was used to being the only Black woman in the room. When she started her own company, she wanted to make sure that wasn’t the case anymore.  

After more than a year of online shopping and curbside pickups, those adaptations and many others that Atlanta retailers made to survive the pandemic are likely permanent, experts say.

Tennis legend Serena Williams captivated a star-studded, capacity crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Monday night, soundly defeating Montenegro’s Danka Kovinic in her last professional tournament at the U.S. Open. Williams’ significant 6-3 victory showcased her signature serve, powerful athleticism and graceful endurance.

The U.S. Department of Commerce, Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) proudly announces recipients of the 2022 Minority Enterprise Development Week (MED Week) Awards. The MED Week Awards are the highest level of national recognition that a U.S. minority-owned firm can receive from the Department of Commerce.

Barbara Jones-Brown is wistful as she talks about Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), the go-to financial institution for many tech investors and startups, before its sudden demise in March. It was probably one of the best banking relationships I ever had,” said Jones-Brown, who is the founder and CEO of the Atlanta-based loss prevention software startup Freeing Returns.

Today we’d like to introduce you to Barbara Jones-Brown. Barbara, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin? I grew up in the sunny city of Austin, Texas. Like Atlanta, it’s hot in the summertime and I spent my summers curled up with a book. Not only a voracious reader, I enjoyed my English, science and math classes at school and dreamt of being an engineer.

Barbara Jones-Brown is the personification of all the things Atlanta does right – and wrong – when it comes to supporting Black women founders. She is the founder and CEO of the loss prevention software startup Freeing Returns, which was born out of a program run by a technology incubator at Georgia Tech.