This week, McDonald’s shared it partnered with ESSENCE Girls United and New Voices Foundation — an organization that invests in women of color-owned companies — to award Black women entrepreneurs funding for their businesses.
“ESSENCE Girls United is proud to partner with McDonald’s to help empower young women entrepreneurs on their journey to thrive in business and become examples for others in their community,” said Cassandre Charles — Vice-President of Marketing, ESSENCE — in a press statement.
Through this program, McDonald’s was able to gift both Jannice Newson — co-founder of Lillian Augusta Hair company — and Maya Caine — co-founder of MIVE Fashions — with $10,000 in funding this past weekend.
The news was revealed at ESSENCE’s 2020 Girls United Virtual Summit for McDonald’s Making Moves Now Virtual Pitch Competition, which saw five different Black women entrepreneurs between the ages of 18 and 25 who shared their business ideas with three judges for a chance to win, according to ESSENCE.
Newson shared her excitement of the big news with ESSENCE stating: “I have to catch my breath! It’s a great feeling. Especially knowing we’re getting ready for our launch next year. This is really going to be very beneficial to get things in place for us.”
Caine was also moved by the news sharing with ESSENCE: “We’re gearing up for a beta test with 2,000 women across the country. So, being able to prep for that, recruit the women and have them be the first testers of MIVE is so exciting. This is gonna help us make a seamless process for that before we do our full launch of the app next year.”
Other participating businesswomen in the competition included III Athletics co-founder, Sasha Robbs; Soulbites founder, La Shay Green; and BStarPR founder, Brandy Merriweather.
For more information on all the participants, click here.