Venture Capital Limited by Geography, Race and Gender in 2017

BOSTON, MA (October 1, 2018) - Fewer than 10% of venture capital-backed startups had a female co-founder, and fewer than 1% had an African-American female cofounder in 2017, according to a recent report by Pitchbook. The study also determined that 75% of all venture capital went to companies in California, Massachusetts and New York.

Increasing access to venture capital is imperative in 2018, to empower and maximize the potential and impact of entrepreneurs of all genders and races throughout the United States.

Despite the lack of venture capital funding, companies with a woman on the founding team outperformed all-male companies by 63% in a ten-year study by First Round Capital. Racially diverse companies outperformed industry norms by 35%, according to a McKinsey study.

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Latino Small Business Owners Drive $700 Billion of Growth Annually, New Study Finds

WASHINGTON, DC (September 25, 2018) - Latino small businesses earned $700 billion last year and grew 31.6% since 2012 - more than double the average growth rate of small businesses in that period - according to a new study by the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

"Providing access to better and faster financing options will allow Latino-owned businesses to build upon this momentum," Manuel Chinea of Popular Bank said.

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Mississippi Black Entrepreneur Expo Boosts Business Owners

GULFPORT, MS (September 11, 2018) - Mississippi’s Black Entrepreneur Expo featured 37 local vendors and offered networking opportunities for Gulfport business owners.

“At Walmart, or any other store for that matter, you’re not able to really get hands on service about the particular product and hear the back story,” entrepreneur Ramonic Day said. “Everybody here has a backstory as to why they started their business.”

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Tech Partnerships a Major Success for African-American Bank in South Carolina

COLUMBIA, SC (August 15, 2018) - South Carolina Community Bank rebounded from the financial crisis by developing a new network of Fintech partnerships.

“As a small bank, we don’t have a large innovation lab budget; we don’t have the thousands of people focused on product development that large banks have,” CEO Dominik Mjartan said. “But we do have some very good partners we’re working with that could really transform our ability to innovate and then scale the innovation.”

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Urban Synergy in Action supports new businesses in Connecticut

BRIDGEPORT, CT (August 13, 2018) - The new initiative Urban Synergy in Action (USA) is building an incubator to provide office space and business development support to the growing tide of urban entrepreneurs.

“It’s important to see people who live in your neighborhood or reflect the demographic of the neighborhood, opening up businesses and having a slice of that American dream… of being able to contribute, create jobs and be a fabric of the community,” said the director of Bridgeport’s Small and Minority Business Enterprise, Fred Gee.

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Black Women-Owned Businesses Thriving in Oklahoma

TULSA, OK (August 9, 2018) - Black women-owned businesses in Oklahoma grew 160 percent from 2002-2012, a new report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City found.

The Kansas City Federal Reserve hosted an event for regional business owners to share their experiences and concerns. Chief among their concerns were challenges with credit, as well as lack of access to mentorships and business development information.

"You could see the palpable energy in that room when they talked about their experience as owners and what they had to go through to do what they needed to do,” said Dell Gines of the Kansas City Federal Reserve.

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Protecting Business Owners Against Predatory Lenders

CHESAPEAKE BEACH, MD (May 16, 2018) excerpt via BLACK ENTERPRISE - Eighty-seven percent of small business owners support measures that would protect against predatory lenders and boost the availability of traditional loans, according to a new study by Small Business Majority.

Predatory lending costs Americans an incredible $25 billion each year. The lack of transparency and integrity among online lenders is a major concern: three out of four small business owners support the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which works to regulate lenders and financial service providers.

“Online lenders are largely unregulated and can take advantage of small businesses that are desperate for capital,” said Sharon Levy, owner of Taking Tea InStyle in Princeton, New Jersey. “Small business owners simply don’t have enough good lending options, which is why we need better policies in place to give small businesses a level playing field and a safer environment in which to conduct business.”

Research shows that small business owners prefer to secure financing from trustworthy, traditional sources over predatory online lenders. 77% of small business owners desire a policy to increase the amount of small business loans from credit unions, and 62% support policies that require banks to invest in low-income communities.

“Far too many entrepreneurs have difficulty obtaining the capital they need to start and expand their business,” Small Business Majority CEO John Arensmeyer said. “When they are able to get financing, they need that capital to be safely and responsibly administered. As these poll results show, small business owners are strongly supportive of policies and institutions that increase the availability of small business loans from traditional sources like small banks and credit unions, while also shielding them from predatory lending practices.”

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Cleveland’s New Business Growth Collaborative Supports Minority Business Owners

CLEVELAND, OH (April 19, 2018) excerpt via CRAIN'S CLEVELAND BUSINESS - Ten organizations in Cleveland have coordinated to establish a coalition supporting growth initiatives for minority business owners, known as the Business Growth Collaborative.

"At its core, the BGC is about putting the needs of diverse entrepreneurs and small business owners first," said Cathy Belk, president of JumpStart Inc. "Each organization in the BGC has their own unique strengths and ways of doing things — but the best way to help the people we all serve get the knowledge and support they need is to work together whenever and wherever possible."

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Small Business Growth in Philadelphia Aims to Close the Income Gap

PHILADELPHIA, PA (April 17, 2018) excerpt via THE PHILADELPHIA TRIBUNE - Developing minority-owned small businesses could diminish the income gap, according to Marc H. Morial, president of the National Urban League.

“While white adults have 13 times the wealth of Black adults, the gap between white and Black business owners is only three to one. The median net worth for Black business owners is 12 times higher than Black non-business owners,” Morial wrote.

The National Urban League is partnering with Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses to provide access to business support services and foster growth.

“‘Histories of the civil rights movement that emphasize the glory and successes of charismatic leaders only tell part of the story,” said historian Louis Ferleger in The Philadelphia Tribune. “‘Small Black-owned businesses were critical because they were empowered to engage in civic participation. These businesses were uniquely situated to support the civil rights movement and also parted the waters.’”

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Establishing Credit History for Immigrants: Uncovering an Untapped Market

NEW YORK, NY (February 21, 2018) - Recent immigrants to the United States face an enormous hurdle to building a new life: a nonexistent credit history.

Credit cards, bank loans, cars and real estate all require a solid credit score, and yet immigrants arrive with a blank slate in the American credit score system, regardless of their financial history abroad.

“You could be a billionaire in Australia, come over here and try to apply for a credit card. You're probably going to get rejected if you have no credit footprint in this country,” says Lend Academy founder Peter Renton.

A number of FinTech companies have evolved to serve this overlooked market and maximize opportunities for foreigners to contribute to the American economy. Nova Credit estimates that 10 million immigrants in the past decade would be categorized as prime to super prime if their international credit records were accessible.

Read the entire article here. 

Entrepreneurship Program Launches to Support Latino Business Owners

SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY, CA (February 14, 2018) - The Mexican and Guatemalan consulates in California partnered to create an eight-week entrepreneurship program for Latino entrepreneurs in California.

“We’re told that we are a burden to this country,” said Guatemalan Consul Billy Munoz. “But on the contrary, Latinos are a huge help to the economy. And we are hungry to contribute to our adopted homeland that is the U.S.”

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Women and Minority-Owned Businesses are Thriving in Houston

HOUSTON, TX (February 9, 2018) - Minority and women business owners are on the rise and inspiring new business initiatives in Houston.

Women-owned businesses in Houston grew 70.4% in the last ten years, boosting their employment by 34.5%, according to the American Express State of Women-Owned Businesses Report.

A 2016 US Census Bureau study found that 30.8% of businesses in the area are owned by minorities, ranking Houston in sixth place of all metropolitan areas in the United States.

Numerous community and business organizations are stepping up to support this surge of small businesses. The Houston Women’s Business Enterprise Alliance offers seminars and courses and fosters community among women entrepreneurs.

“We want the small-business community to know that you’re not out there alone,” WBEA President April Day says. “There are organizations here to support you, and there are small businesses that are going where you’re going and have been where you want to go.”

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Financing Challenges for Minority Entrepreneurs

NEW YORK, NY (January 30, 2018) - The number of minority-owned small businesses has skyrocketed in the past decade, growing by 79% - ten times faster than the overall growth rate for all small businesses in that time period.

11.1 million businesses in the United States are owned by minorities; yet these communities are drastically underserved in the world of business financing. The Minority Business Development Agency at the Department of Commerce reports that minority-owned firms are much less likely to be approved for business loans, and receive lower amounts and higher interest rates.

“These discrepancies have made minority business owners more likely to not apply for small business loans, usually out of fear of rejection,” reports Jared Weitz of Forbes.

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Bringing Down Barriers for Minority Entrepreneurs

NEWARK, NJ (January 18, 2018) - New Jersey established the Urban Plus Program in a new law on Tuesday, which will collaborate with the Economic Development Authority to provide support and access to financing for underserved minority business owners.

The Urban Plus Program is one step forward in addressing a significant problem: lack of access to capital for women and minority small business owners.

“Minority company ownership is up 38 percent over five years. These firms provide 7 million jobs. Hispanics and African-Americans represent 25 percent of the population. Yet only 1 percent of [venture] capital flows to Hispanic or black entrepreneurs. Does anyone honestly believe these communities are the source of just 1 percent of our best business ideas?” Maria Contreras-Sweet of the Small Business Administration asked.

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Latinos Get Spotlight at the Minority Business Table

GREENVILLE COUNTY, NC (October 4, 2017) excerpt from THE DAILY REFLECTOR - It is more important than ever before to have a conversation about Latinos in Greenville and Pitt County, Juvencio Rocha-Peralta, executive director of the Association of Mexicans in North Carolina, told about 75 minority business owners and government officials during a Minority Enterprise Development Week luncheon at the Hilton Greenville hosted by the Greenville Financial Services Department

“Latinos have embraced communities and changed the culture of the United States,” keynote speaker Rocha-Peralta said. “We have grown extremely fast. In 2016, 27.3 million Latinos voted in elections, and 24 percent of private enterprise is Latino-owned, an amazing business statistic ... that shows a powerful movement to change the political climate.” 

Rocha-Peralta also said that most Latino business startups are self-financed, a claim apparently backed up by a 2016 report by JP Morgan & Chase on a study by the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. When Latino entrepreneurs start a business, 70 percent of their funding comes from personal savings, while six percent comes from commercial loans, according to the study.

Of the businesses surveyed in the Stanford study, more than 40 percent of non-citizen Latino business owners, all of whom are here legally, are rejected when they apply for their first business loans, according to the JP Morgan report.

Rocha-Peralta praised Greenville and Pitt County officials and residents for their recognition of the accomplishments of minority business owners, but said there still is much work to do.

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New Rules Would Target Discrimination in Small-Business Lending

WASHINGTON DC (September 28, 2017) excerpt from KQED NEWS - Banks could be forced to collect and report data on the small-business loans they approve and reject — including the ethnicity and gender of the business owners — under new rules being crafted by a federal consumer protection agency. Economists and regulators say the data could help identify whether lenders discriminate against minority- or women-owned businesses.

The new rules would aim to “facilitate enforcement of fair lending laws” as directed by Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act. Congress approved the major financial reform legislation in direct response to the last financial crisis.

Mortgage lenders already collect similar data, which help to “shed light on lending patterns that could be discriminatory,” according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency tasked with implementing the reporting changes on small-business lending.

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Latino-Owned Small Businesses Struggle to Grow Their Companies

PASADENA, CA (September 25, 2017) - More than 40 percent of the nearly 400,000 Latino-owned small businesses in the greater Los Angeles area have been denied capital because of low credit scores and other perceived risks, a new study reveals.

The report, “Fueling California’s Economic Growth: A Study on Latino Small Business and Capital Access” by the Small Business Finance Fund, defines the L.A. region to include Los Angeles, Long Beach and Santa Ana. But the statistics are reflective of the entire state.

Access to capital is important for all entrepreneurs, whether the funding is needed for a startup venture or to grow an existing business.

Small business lending by traditional financial institutions and household wealth contracted significantly in the wake of the Great Recession and access to capital remains problematic for all entrepreneurs, despite the economic recovery. But evidence shows that Latino small business owners are denied credit more often, charged higher interest rates and discouraged from applying for loans more often than their white counterparts, according to the report. That’s primarily because they tend to have lower credit scores, limited collateral and less startup capital.

And it has a ripple effect.

The lack of access to mainstream financial services and bank financing creates a financial disconnect, the report said, and it can be exacerbated by a lack of familiarity with the legal system, tax laws, local codes and standard accounting practices. 

To read the entire article, click here.