Wells Fargo Expands Financing for Diverse Small Businesses
January 30 2020 - 10:33AM
Business Wire
Wells Fargo Foundation’s Diverse Community Capital Program
invests $17.4 million to help entrepreneurs grow 50,000 jobs
The Wells Fargo Foundation announces that it is providing $17.4
million to Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs)
across the U.S. to accelerate the growth of diverse small
businesses and job creation in local communities. As part of the
foundation’s Diverse Community Capital program, Wells Fargo’s
grants will fund new efforts to speed access to capital, launch
mentoring programs, expand geographic reach, and help sustain more
than 50,000 local jobs. Overall, the funding is expected to create
an opportunity for more than 30,000 new loans to diverse
entrepreneurs.
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Adrian Espinoza Garcia, owner of Empanada
Club in Maine, has a growing business as part of the Wells Fargo
Diverse Community Capital program. (Photo: Business Wire)
“Empowering small businesses is a direct and impactful way to
stimulate job growth,” said Brandee McHale, president of the Wells
Fargo Foundation. “Wells Fargo’s Diverse Community Capital program
lifts up underserved small business owners with financing and
important technical assistance. By working with CDFIs, we can reach
into neighborhoods to find those entrepreneurs who want to build a
legacy for their families and the wider community.”
Wells Fargo will collaborate with these CDFIs, local banks with
a social mission, during this investment round:
Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs, Atlanta, will launch
a new collaboration with Morehouse College’s Innovation and
Entrepreneurship Center for diverse entrepreneurs and expand an
existing in-house development program for women entrepreneurs. Both
programs will focus on activating growth and building business
acumen for existing small businesses poised to scale. The theory of
change for each will be evaluated for possible replication. In
addition, a new loan guarantee program will give high-risk business
owners access to capital and technical assistance. Overall funding
will enable ACE to provide more than $28 million in loans for at
least 250 diverse small business owners over the next three years,
enabling 500 local jobs.
Community First Fund, will expand its lending work in
north Philadelphia, increasing the capital available to primarily
African American and Latino small businesses by more than $13
million. Community First Fund plans to intensify efforts in the
small business community and anticipates financing 89 businesses
that will employ more than 350.
Grameen America will expand its microlending program in
Los Angeles and open locations in Fresno, Calif.; San Antonio; and
Dallas to enable diverse low-income women entrepreneurs to start or
grow businesses with the goal of investing in over 6,000 new
businesses and supporting 6,700 jobs over three years. To help
support successful small businesses, Grameen America offers all of
its members the ability to receive financial education, build their
credit scores, and boost their family’s incomes.
Houston Business Development, Houston, will deploy more
than $3.25 million in loans over three years by introducing Credit
Builder, Fast Track and Express Loans in the Houston area to help
expedite access to finance for entrepreneurs. Along with increased
capital, Houston Business Development will mentor more than 4,500
small business owners and run local workshops that build business
acumen.
LISC will increase the total volume of lending to diverse
small businesses in South Los Angeles and the Far East Industrial
Corridor of Indianapolis by providing enhanced credit for
entrepreneurs in need and growing the size of its available loan
capital for underrepresented small business owners over the next
three years. In each place this work is part of a broader effort to
support and coordinate investments in people, places and
businesses.
Opportunity Fund, based in California, will launch an
Inclusive Lending Platform, with a goal of originating more than
16,000 loans and investing more than $600 million in minority-owned
small businesses through 2022. The new platform will enable digital
referrals and loan packaging, increasing efficiency and
accelerating access to affordable financing and improving the
customer experience. This catalytic capital and online platform
will help support nearly 45,000 local jobs in diverse,
undercapitalized communities across the U.S.
Raza Development Fund, Phoenix, will enhance its services
and technical assistance for diverse entrepreneurs in South Phoenix
with a focus on larger-scale loans for growth-stage companies. With
new financing, small business owners anticipate sustaining
approximately 275 local jobs.
Started in 2015, the Wells Fargo Diverse Community Capital
program is a five-year, $175 million commitment to empower diverse
small businesses in collaboration with Opportunity Finance Network.
To date, the program has delivered more than 322,000 hours of
technical assistance and $781 million in financing to
minority-owned small businesses, enabling over 103,000 jobs across
the U.S.
About Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a diversified,
community-based financial services company with $1.9 trillion in
assets. Wells Fargo’s vision is to satisfy our customers’ financial
needs and help them succeed financially. Founded in 1852 and
headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking,
investment and mortgage products and services, as well as consumer
and commercial finance, through 7,400 locations, more than 13,000
ATMs, the internet (wellsfargo.com) and mobile banking, and has
offices in 32 countries and territories to support customers who
conduct business in the global economy. With approximately 260,000
team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in the
United States. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked No. 29 on
Fortune’s 2019 rankings of America’s largest corporations. News,
insights and perspectives from Wells Fargo are also available at
Wells Fargo Stories.
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Kim Erlichson, 201-463-4243
kim.erlichson@wellsfargo.com
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