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What oftentimes stands between an entrepreneur’s innovative idea and the act of them starting a business is the lack of funding — especially for Black and brown communities. Seed At The Table is an equity crowdfunding platform that’s working to bridge such funding gaps while empowering Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) entrepreneurs. As previously reported by AfroTech, the initiative not only helps provide Black and brown entrepreneurs with access to capital, but also allows non-accredited investors to invest in businesses that are founded by those who look like them. “Prior to the pandemic, BIPOC-owned businesses were already the least likely to receive access to capital,” Seed At The Table co-founder Suzen Baraka told AfroTech. “When they went out for funding, they were either denied or they received less than what they needed in order to start up. I think that’s why Seed At The Table is necessary because we are a team of subject matter experts in our respective...
Five entrepreneurs have walked away with the funding needed to help their businesses flourish. According to PR Newswire, Metropolitan Economic Development Association’s Million Dollar Challenge — the largest Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) entrepreneurial competition in the nation — has announced the winners of the fourth annual competition where five companies received $1.2 million in financial support. Metropolitan Economic Development Association ( Meda) was founded by a group of Minnesota business leaders who were looking to attack inequity within minority communities in the state. The press release states, “Meda operates a growing Community Development Fund Institution (CDFI) that provides needed capital for BIPOC businesses to become sustainable.” Since its inception, it has helped to launch more than 500 BIPOC businesses and helped with more than 23,000 Minnesota BIPOC entrepreneurs. Almost 200 businesses in the U.S. applied to participate with only 12 making...
Claima Stories — the podcast committed to telling stories about careers of BIPOC creatives– is putting its money where its mouth is! Claima (which is short for “claim a seat at the table”) Stories has been committed to addressing the disparities of BIPOC-youth in creative industries. Now they have partnered with Vistaprint to provide $250,000 in funding to Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) behind small businesses that have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to information provided to AfroTech, when it comes to those creative industries, it has been estimated that during the pandemic, more than 2.7 million jobs were lost with an additional loss of over $150 billion in sales of goods and services for the industry nationwide. This represents nearly a third of all jobs within the creative industries which include art, fashion, film, sneakers, and more. The multi-dimensional partnership is a part of 99 Days of Design, a 99designs by Vistaprint initiative that was...
Comcast is committed to equipping low-income Americans will the tools and resources needed to succeed in the digital world. As the company celebrates the 10th anniversary of its Internet Essentials program, an announcement was made that it would invest $1 billion over the next 10 years to help close the digital divide. Since 2011, the company has collaborated with its network of thousands of nonprofit partners to connect more than 10 million people in America to broadband Internet at home — the overwhelming majority did not have a connection prior to signing up. The $1 billion commitment includes investments in numerous critical areas that include: additional support for its ongoing Lift Zone initiative which will provide WiFi-connected safe spaces in 1,000+ community cities nationwide by the end of 2021; new laptop and computer donations; grants for nonprofit community organizations to create opportunities for low-income Americans, and more. “Ten years is a remarkable milestone,...
The restaurant industry has taken a beating thanks to COVID — and now, DoorDash wants to do its part to reverse that course. In a press release announcement, it was revealed that the popular meal delivery service released its new Main Street Strong Accelerator program in close partnership with nonprofit small business lender and support organization, Action Opportunity Fund. This program, which is an initiative providing financial support and specialized educational resources, has a $2 million war chest that will focus on minority- and women-owned businesses in the restaurant industry. “The social and financial inequities that many businesses experienced before the pandemic have only been amplified by the current global pandemic and economic crisis,” said Tony Xu, CEO and co-founder of DoorDash, in the press-release statement. “To truly empower and grow local economies, you must start with the entrepreneur. With a commitment to advancing diversity and equity, starting with the...