Visa and Visa Foundation Extend Support of Minority-led Small Businesses
December 16 2020 - 6:00AM
Business Wire
The new initiatives build on Visa’s commitment
to small businesses and Visa Foundation’s $200 million Equitable
Access Initiative
Supporting small and micro businesses (SMBs) has been an urgent
priority throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, with a great need among
minority-owned small businesses, which are disproportionately
impacted. Building on Visa’s long-term commitment to this
community, Visa Foundation today announced new initiatives to
provide nearly $5 million in capital to minority-led SMBs, amid a
second wave of COVID-19. Visa also announced mentorship programs to
further support minority-led SMBs. At the same time, the Visa
Economic Empowerment Institute (VEEI) released a new white paper,
Supporting Social Equity by Boosting Small Businesses. The paper
highlights that Black and African American-owned businesses
experienced a larger drop in business ownership (41 percent) than
other businesses.
The VEEI white paper details the historical trends and systemic
barriers exacerbating the current state of Black-owned SMBs across
the U.S. It outlines policy measures to address these barriers,
focused on helping businesses survive, investing in equity in
education and in targeted opportunities, such as training and
scholarship programs.
As part of its commitment to support SMBs and to address the
challenges in access to capital of underrepresented groups broadly,
including women and racial and ethnic minority communities, Visa
Foundation commits the following:
- $3 million to Black Ambition, a newly launched racial equity
and entrepreneurship initiative launched by producer and
entrepreneur Pharrell Williams in partnership with five
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
- $1.5 million to Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) to
increase small business resiliency for women entrepreneurs of color
directly impacted by COVID-19.
-
$300,000 to VC Include, a Women of Color-led organization
building economic justice infrastructure for Black, Latinx,
Indigenous, people of color, and women-led funds through education
and training programs to support their fundraising journey and
build relationships with Limited Partners.
“The capital gap for entrepreneurs of color must be closed if we
are to achieve inclusive economic growth for everyone, everywhere,”
said Graham Macmillan, president, Visa Foundation. “Visa Foundation
is privileged to partner with these organizations that are
addressing this funding and opportunity gap by helping them to
empower women, Black and Latinx entrepreneurs. These grants
represent just the beginning of our commitment to allocate capital,
both grants and investments, to gender and racially-diverse
investors and entrepreneurs."
Additionally, Visa recently launched a Visa employee mentorship
program with Bridge for Billions. Through this online program, Visa
employees will mentor Black, primarily women-owned SMBs on a
three-month incubation journey to help them review their business
model, define their financial projections, create a growth plan for
their venture and much more. Start-ups or early-stage entrepreneurs
are encouraged to apply here by December 31, 2020, to be considered
for the program starting in February 2021.
These new initiatives build on Visa’s commitment to racial
equity and support of SMBs during the COVID-19 pandemic, including
the Visa Black Scholars and Jobs Program, the expansion of
Practical Business Skills (a financial and digital skills education
platform) and the Visa’s grant program with IFundWomen, which
awarded 25 $10,000 grants and IFundWomen coaching to Black
women-owned small businesses. Visa Foundation’s new grants extend
its commitment of $200 million to support SMBs, with a focus on
women’s economic advancement.
About Visa Foundation
Visa Foundation seeks to support inclusive economies where
individuals, businesses and communities can thrive. Through
grantmaking and investing, the Foundation prioritizes the
resilience and growth of micro and small businesses that benefit
women. The Foundation also supports broader community needs and
disaster response in times of crisis. Visa Foundation is registered
in the U.S. as a 501(c)3 entity. For more information, visit:
https://usa.visa.com/about-visa/philanthropy/visa-foundation.html.
About Visa Inc.
Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) is the world’s leader in digital payments.
Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative,
reliable and secure payment network - enabling individuals,
businesses and economies to thrive. Our advanced global processing
network, VisaNet, provides secure and reliable payments around the
world, and is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction
messages a second. The company’s relentless focus on innovation is
a catalyst for the rapid growth of digital commerce on any device,
for everyone, everywhere. As the world moves from analog to
digital, Visa is applying our brand, products, people, network and
scale to reshape the future of commerce. For more information,
visit: About Visa, visa.com/blog and @VisaNews.
About Visa Economic Empowerment Institute
Visa Economic Empowerment Institute (VEEI) is a center of
excellence for research and public-private dialogue on payments
policy, established by Visa. The VEEI’s overarching mission is to
promote public policies that empower citizens, small businesses,
and economies. It develops new research and insights that inform
long term policy within the global payments ecosystem. Visa
established the VEEI as the next step in its ongoing work to remove
barriers to economic empowerment and to create more inclusive,
equitable economic opportunities for everyone, everywhere. For more
information, visit:
https://usa.visa.com/sites/visa-economic-empowerment-institute.html.
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Lindy Mockovak Lindy.mockovak@visa.com
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