Venture Capital Funding NEWS 2021
VISIBLE HANDS is local venture capital firm started by Black/BIPOC visionaries to fund Black startup entrepreneurs and women and people of color. Visible Hands is selecting BIPOC startups to accept $25,000 seed money at their earliest stages and participation in a 14 week program to refine their companies. At graduation the entrepreneurs can request $200,000 more.
Cash Grants for Black Businesses and Minorities
There are many many sources of funds for small businesses. These are just a few.
"
- EIDL funding request will be processed until Dec 31, 2021. APPLY HERE
- SBA FUNDS for small businesses, non-profits, restaurants, night clubs, entertainment venues, concert halls, home owners, individuals who file a 1099 and other.
-
The Mass Mutual Catylst Grant is a funding source for Black businesses.
- You can get startup capital by winning Business Plan competitions at the Roxbury Innovation Center in Nubian Square. Learn More
- Funders of colors and venture capitalists are looking for Black and Brown companies to invest in. In a series of Capital Network workshops, the dealmakers were on a panel describing who they fund, what they fund and why they fund.
Some of the funding decision makers are Samer Yusef, Chief Of Staff at BLCK VC & Co-founder at Investors of Color Network, Vonetta Young Advisor, Investment Readiness + Fund Formation at VY Advisors & Board Member 1863 Ventures, Eli Velasquez, Board Member at Angel Capital Association, Co-founder & MD at Investors of Color Network, Courtney Scrubbs, Founder, The DAWA Investment Network. And there are hundreds more.
- Black and Brown executives have raised $30 miilion dollars with a goal of $100 million to give funds to Black and minority businesses in Massachusetts. Fund managers are The New Commonwealth Racial Equity And Social Justice Fund, together with the Boston Foundation, Eastern Bank and the State Street Foundation. Learn more.
- LISC.ORG announced it has deposited $20,000,000 into an account for raising $1,000,000,000 to fund grants for Black-owned businesses and affordable housing consumers. We will activate the Application Links when available.
-
Free professional help is availble for growing your business, making the website, writing the business plan and running the marketing and branding - Go To SmallBusinessStrong.com
- City of Boston Small Business Relief GRANTs -- APPLY ONLINE
Referrals
Use a Black-owned company to get your job project done. Make a Request. We shall refer you to a Black-owned businesses in our database.
Get your funding from angel investors by walking into their meetings and participating in their webinars. They are accessible everyday. . Here is a list of organizations who support Black and Brown business owners. They are angel investor organizations you can meet with and join, accelerators and incubators to apply to, investment cooperatives and lending organizations and Banks. Get on their mailing list to learn about their public activities and when you can meet with investors for a converation.
LISC BOSTON awarded grants up to $10,000 each to 75 small businesses across the state recently. The funds were used to cover everything from rent and employee pay to purchases needed to shift operations and adjust products to meet their clients' needs safely. Grant Cycles open and close year round. www.Lisc.org
Visit the ICIC website for resources that support the growth of inner city businesses. With an office located in Roxbury's Nubian Square, the mission of the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) is to drive economic prosperity in America's inner cities through private sector investment to create jobs, income and wealth for local residents. Website
ACCION, the LOCAL micro-loan provider offering funding. You will have to pay it back. They specialize in single employee firms and small businesses. Start with a small fund request, get money, get more later. Location: 10 Fawcett Street, Suite 204, Cambridge, MA 02138 and worldwide. ACCION.ORG
LOCAL
- Boston Business Loans - www.bostonbusinessloans.org is The Boston Local Development Corporation (BLDC)
providing small business loans with a focus on commercial, industrial and service companies.
- TCPProject-Epicenter may well be Boston's most creative funding apparatus for startups where Eighty-nine percent of the participants are people of color. When selected into the program you receive MBA level training, mentoring, finance, legal, business plans, pitching, capital, sales and business etiquette. The program is focused on LOCAL creative ideas rather than billion dollar disrupters. Investments are in music, fashion, restaurants, DJ, Hip-Hop, food trucks and more.
- MASS CHALLENGE - is a Boston-based global accelerator powered by the Boston Foundation and institutional investors, MassChallenge applicants are domestic and international entrepreneurs. From its home in the Seaport Innovation District, Masschallenge provides office space, a marketplace, big cash prizes and expertise to startup founders. Winners receive cash, no strings attached in amounts from $10,000 to $100,000 and more.
Investors focused on Women Business Owners
- BackStage Capital targets Black women, LGBQT, minorities and people of color from underrepresented communities who are not selected for funding by the white man's investor establishment. BackStage Capital
- DigitalUndivided leads high potential Black and Latinx women founders through the startup pipeline; from the beginning of the startup funnel (idea) into the innovation ecosystem.
- Pipeline ANGELS recruits accredited women investors to invest in things
- 37 Angels - focuses on Women-owned businesses
CONTACTS
Nubian Square and Black Wall Streets
Black Wall Street means different things to different people. We think of it as an area in the Nubian Square parcel with homes, churches, hotels, schools, stores, shops, and buildings that are all Black-owned.
- The Nubian Square Coalition Business Subcommittee invites Black business operators to Nubian Square. Write contact@blackboston.com for help in making contacts there with the property owners.
- The New Commonwealth Racial Equity and Social Justice Fund ( hosted at tbf.org ) starts with $20 million raised by 16 Black corporate executives in Boston. Funds will go to supporting Boston Black causes targeting the Four Pillars. The fund plans to raise $100M for this.
- BECMA - The Black Economic Council of New England is a Black business membership organization organized to increase the wealth of Black businesses in the Commonwealth. www.becma.org
- Amplify Latinx was organized to increase the wealth of Latino leaders. www.Amplifylatinx.co/LATINX
- PACESETTERS is a procurement referral program helping minority owned enterprises who belong to the Boston Chamber of Commerce.
- The Center for Women Enterprises trains women-owned business enterprises, certifies them and funds them.
- FIL - The Fairmount Innovation Lab fil594.org in Dorchester incubates creatives and develops their businesses.
The Boston UJIMA PROJECT is a Roxbury-based investment co-op. Residents, financial institutions and grant givers fund UJIMA who in turn fund hyper-local small and very small startups from Black Boston neighborhoods. Ujima Project Facebook page.
BUILD - www.build.org is investing in young entrepreneurs living in Roxbury, Dorchester and Mattapan. BUILD places youth entrepreneurs with local companies and who nuture this pipeline of minority talent.
NEVCA - the New England Venture Capital Association produces Unpitch, a coffee table meeting event designed to put entrepreneurs seeking funding together with investors seeking to make investments. The organization co-founded HACK.DIVERSITY, an initiative to stream college students into paying technology company intern positions,then permanent employment. Also NEVCA administers TECHGEN, an online platform for intern shopping and there are ongoing NEVCA investor related events throughout the year. The NEVCA member investor takes risks on companies needed $50,000 or more.
The Capital Network connects 100s of Angel Investors to startups and businesses seeking funds to grow who are usually based in Massachusetts - click
LCR - The Lawyers for Civil Rights BizGrow Workshop Series are one-on-one business and legal counseling sessions and group workshops. Free and open to the public. Website
VLA - Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts of Massachusetts provides legal counsel, advice, and educational programming to artists and cultural organizations in Massachusetts. Website.
Dorchester Bay Loans - dorchesterbayloans.org does what the name implies in addition to loans, provides free technical assistance to start-ups and growing businesses. Must live in, or have a business in Dorchester, Roxbury, Mattapan, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain or Roslindale, and need to purchase inventory, equipment, tenant improvements or for working capital.
The Boston Impact Initiative provides a mix of funding and grants to companies growing up in urban Boston that have a stake in that community, are growing and have hired employees who live in the neighborhood. bostonimpact.com
Boston Community Capital supports foreclosure relief. bostoncommunitycapital.org
Partners for Common Good bases its loans on the borrowers capabilities and its connection to the community. pcgloanfund.org
Black American Innovation Groups offering Funding and Networking
- People of Color in Tech is a West Coast group that interfaces with Silicon Valley area startups and high tech firms. Follow them and they'll lead you to the money.
- The Black Founders Group was co-founded by Monique Woodward who began targeting Blacks and Latinos with $$ millions from 500 Startups.
- 500 Startups funded BLAVITY.COM.
- The Plug Daily is a newsletter blog forum website that tracks Black-owned innovation work spaces and startups across the nation. theplugdaily.com.
- The Black Founders List - resource made by Kristina Liburd that helps you recruit a Black founder team member.
Black investors who write big checks.
Arlan Hamilton's BackStage Capital raised $36 million dollars to backup LGBQT Black women and minorities. Essence Ventures bought ESSENCE MAGAZINE back. The owner Richelieu Dennis has put the $100 million New Voices Fund into play for C-round investing om Blacks and companies.
Black investors Who Write Big Checks
- Marlan Nichols of Cross Culture Ventures
- Troy Carter partner in Cross Culture Ventures
- Monique Woodard formerly of 500 Startups
- Brian Dixon of Kapor Capital
- Charles Hudson of Precursor Ventures
- Chris Bennett of Soldsie
- Erica Joy Baker of Patreon
- Erik Moore of Base Ventures
- Hadiyah Mujhid of Black Founders and HBCU, INC.
- Kathryn Finney of Undivided,
- Kesha Cash of Impact Amerika Fund
- Kwame Anku of Black Angel Tech Fund
- Mandela Schumacher-Hodge Dixon of Founder Gym
- Shauntel Poulson of Reach Capital
- Sarah Kunst of ProDay
- Peter Boyce II of Rough Draft Ventures and General Catalyst
MBE Enterprises have big construction project plans for the Seaport District, the South End and Dudley Square. Skyscraper hotels, tall luxury apartment buildings, and residential complexes complete with artists performance halls are on the table. with over $2 Billion allocated for greenlighted projects. A 25-foot residential tower is planned for Roxbury, a $550 million, 1,054-room hotel has been approved for South Boston’s Seaport District. African American art gets boosted at The Tremont Crossing Project where a brand new museum for the National Center for Afro American Artist is going up with vertically-stacked retail stores, restaurants, 200,000 square feet of office space, 300 market rate apartment units, and 800 beds of University Housing, and a 175 room hotel.