First on CNN: Commerce Department launches grant program to help female and minority entrepreneurs

The Commerce Division is launching an almost $100 million grant program to assist tens of hundreds of feminine and minority entrepreneurs jump-start and scale their companies, concentrating on structural obstacles these teams face.

The Capital Readiness Program will present $93.5 million in grants to enterprise incubators and accelerators to attach underserved entrepreneurs to a pipeline of sources, coaching and capital to develop their companies. This system, an initiative of the Commerce Division’s Minority Enterprise Improvement Company, represents the only largest funding within the company’s historical past.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo instructed CNN in an interview that she believes the initiative will assist create “hundreds of jobs and unleash an enormous wave of innovation by minority entrepreneurs” by working to interrupt down obstacles to capital, know-how and networks.

“I do know firsthand from my years within the enterprise that ladies and minorities simply have a tougher time elevating capital, getting their first buyer, getting hooked into essential networks,” stated Raimondo, a former enterprise capital govt. “If there’s a Google on the market – a younger lady or a teenager of shade who has an incredible concept and so they simply can’t entry that first $100,000 of seed financing and this will get them going, you’ll be able to think about we is perhaps uncovering the subsequent unicorn funding that in any other case wouldn’t have made it.”

Enterprise surveys have discovered that minority-owned companies had been hit hardest throughout the pandemic, exacerbating an already unequal enjoying area.

The grants, which a senior Commerce Division official stated will vary from $2 million to $3 million every, will fund applications run by firms, nonprofit organizations and universities, offering providers starting from monetary literacy and technical help to networking, mentorship and baby care providers.

The grant program will deal with high-growth industries corresponding to well being care, local weather applied sciences, asset administration and infrastructure. It can additionally look to assist entrepreneurs making use of for funds supplied by the Treasury Division’s State Small Enterprise Credit score Initiative.

The Treasury Division funneled $100 million of American Rescue Plan funds to the Minority Enterprise Improvement Company to fund the Capital Readiness Program. A Commerce Division official stated the remaining $6.5 million can be used to help this system and supply further coaching and sources to grant recipients.

Wally Adeyemo, the deputy Treasury secretary, stated in a press release that this system “will assist allow entrepreneurs and enterprise house owners to acquire the knowledge they should entry funding via small enterprise help applications.”

“When entrepreneurs and small enterprise house owners in all communities have an opportunity to compete and thrive, it will increase our nation’s complete financial potential and progress,” he stated.