Tony's and Pharrell Williams - getting down to business

It may seem crazy... but yes. Tony’s and Pharrell. We’re united by one mission: fighting for a fair world. To get there, we’ve gotta make noise.. and a whole lot of it! Through this powerful partnership, we’ll be kicking off projects to empower people and the planet. And step-by-step, create impact.

What is Tony’s Chocolonely and Pharrell Williams’ partnership about?

What better way to kick off our long-term partnership with Pharrell Williams than at our annual FAIR, held in December 2020, right? We thought it was a pretty neat way to celebrate. But that probably left you with lots of questions still, right? The question we get most is ‘what are you guys actually doing together?’ So, let us break it down for you.

The long answer is that we’ll be doing a whole lot together, all with a goal of ending modern slavery and illegal child labor in the cocoa industry and closing the opportunity and wealth gap in the United States. We’ve got lots of know-how, and our friend Pharrell has lots of ideas and a big voice. The short answer is that we’ve got lots of tricks up our sleeves that we can’t tell you about just yet, but our first initiative together should give you a pretty good idea. That project is supporting his non-profit, Black Ambition.

What is Black Ambition?

It started as a vision of Pharrell’s years ago, and over the past few months, it’s become a reality. Black Ambition is a non-profit that provides a bridge to success for Black and Latinx entrepreneurs by providing access to capital, mentorship and operational resources. Black Ambition accomplishes that primarily through two premier prize competitions: the Black Ambition HBCU Prize and the Black Ambition Prize.

The Black Ambition Prize provides a platform for eligible entrepreneurs to access growth capital, pitch feedback, and mentorship. Eligible applicants consist of Black and Latinx founders building across consumer products and services, design, healthcare and tech categories.

Black Ambition’s overall goal is for inclusive entrepreneurship to be the new normal. We don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty sweet to us. After all, ‘entrepreneurial’ is one of our core values, and we work every day towards our mission of equality! So, working together on the success of Black Ambition seemed like a natural place to start.

‘How is Tony’s supporting Black Ambition’s mission’ you ask? In true Tony’s fashion, we’ve created an incredibly special Black Ambition Tony’s bar! The all-new flavor wrapped inside of the Black Ambition wrapper is a mouth-watering mix of milk chocolate with crunch caramel, almond, nougat, pretzels and flakey sea salt. Hey, we warned you it was mouth-watering!

Each Black Ambition bar contributes to funding the Black Ambition prizes. Plus, as a key partner of the program, we’ll be supporting Black Ambition beyond bar proceeds alone. We will contribute by sharing our knowledge about how to create an impact business.

What’s coming up next?

We wish we could spill all of the beans for you right now, but we can’t. Top secret surprises, you know? But what we can tell you is that it doesn’t stop here. We’re in it to win it with Pharrell Williams, and by winning it, we mean achieving both of our missions. There’s a long way to go, so buckle up and stay tuned for the impact we’ll make together.