Wells Fargo has announced that it has joined forces with the Black Economic Alliance Foundation to launch the Entrepreneur Fund.

In a press release announcement, it was revealed that the mega-bank will “anchor” the funding for this Entrepreneur Fund. Titled the Black Economic Alliance Entrepreneurs Fund (BEA Entrepreneurs Fund), this $50 million evergreen fund will provide seed, start-up, and early-stage capital funding to businesses both founded, and led, by Black entrepreneurs.

Wells Fargo, itself, has pledged a $20 million commitment over the course of the next five years for the fund. One hundred percent of all returns to the fund will support ongoing operations and additional investments in Black-owned businesses and entrepreneurs.

“The Black Economic Alliance is proud to marshal resources to support more Black-owned businesses and founders, which will leverag hiring more Black workers and additional investment in Black businesses and communities,”
said David Clunie, Executive Director of the Black Economic Alliance, in the press release announcement. “We are thankful to Wells Fargo for providing $20 million in anchor funding to catalyze the launch of this important,
long-term investment in Black entrepreneurs.”

Previously, AfroTech reported that Wells Fargo was being much more proactive when it comes to investing in minority-owned businesses — which also included an investment in minority-owned banks totaling $50 million.

This previous announcement, plus the current announcement in collaboration with the Black Economic Alliance, is certainly proving that the mega-bank is working overtime to make sure that they’re counteracting the bad publicity they received a few years ago, when it came to racial disparity issues.

In September 2020, Wells Fargo’s CEO Charles Scharf came under fire when he claimed that the bank refused to hire more Black candidates because “there was not enough qualified minority talent” to draw from.

“If people say they can’t find the talent, they either aren’t looking hard enough or don’t want to find it,” said Ken Bacon, a former mortgage industry executive who is on the boards of Welltower Inc., Comcast Corp, and Ally Financial, said at the time. “There is an amazing amount of Black talent out there.”