JPMorgan Chase Commits $350 Million to Grow Black, Latinx and Women-owned Small Businesses - Seite 2

JPMorgan Chase first launched its Small Business Forward initiative in 2015. Over the last five years, the firm has provided more than $200 million in philanthropy, including $20 million in COVID-19 relief, to support underserved small businesses in cities around the world. These funds provided access to capital and technical support to more than 1 million diverse small businesses, which have raised nearly $10 billion in capital and increased revenue by an average of 22%.

Expanding the Entrepreneurs of Color Fund

In collaboration with Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) and a network of CDFIs, JPMorgan Chase is investing $42.5 million in low-cost loans and philanthropy to expand the Entrepreneurs of Color Fund, which currently operates in five U.S. cities. This commitment will scale the Entrepreneurs of Color Fund program to reach new U.S. cities in 2021 with the goal to create a nationwide program providing low-cost loans and technical assistance to minority-owned small businesses through CDFI partners over time.

The program aims to assist over 3,000 small businesses by attracting capital from additional investors and applying lessons learned investments in other cities.

“Even in strong economic times, minority-owned businesses are more likely to struggle to access appropriate financing than their white counterparts,” said Steve Hall, Senior Director of Small Business Lending, Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC). “That not only affects owners and their families; it means the communities where they operate have more limited access to goods, services, jobs and economic growth. JPMorgan Chase is helping bridge that gap, while also helping these entrepreneurs prepare to successfully emerge from the losses of the pandemic.”

Since its inception in Detroit in 2015, the Entrepreneurs of Color Fund has provided over 1,200 loans and deployed more than $32 million in capital to Black, Latinx and other underserved entrepreneurs, including Jimmie Williams from Chicago, who received a small business loan to scale his landscaping company. The program has grown to include a network of 12 CDFIs in five metro areas including Detroit, the Bay Area, South Bronx, Chicago and the Greater Washington DC area.

The Entrepreneurs of Color Fund is an example of cities as laboratories of innovation, where one pilot program, tested in a handful of cities over time, can be scaled to support small businesses in communities across the country.