Wells Fargo Expands Resources for Women-Owned Small Businesses
March 10 2022 - 1:30PM
Business Wire
Initiatives include focus on closing venture capital and gender
equity gaps among entrepreneurs
Wells Fargo today announced resources designed to help increase
the growth of women-owned small businesses, including a $1.5
million grant to How Women Lead aimed at disrupting the unequal
venture capital (VC) system for women founders. The grant will help
inspire 10,000 women to invest with venture capital for the first
time, ultimately building a $1 billion fund. In addition, the
company is sharing new data and an interactive tool-kit on closing
the economic gaps facing women entrepreneurs.
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the full release here:
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Wells Fargo celebrates Women's History
Month (Photo: Wells Fargo)
“Supporting women and women in business has always been a huge
priority at Wells Fargo and this month we are underscoring our
year-round commitment,” said CEO of Wells Fargo Consumer and Small
Business Banking Mary Mack. “If we come together on actionable
steps to close the gender inequity gap, we can accelerate the
trajectory of women entrepreneurs and their contributions to the
economy.”
Empowering a $1 billion venture capital fund for
women-founded and led companies
Wells Fargo’s grant to How Women Lead will seed a $1 billion
fund – the largest women-founded venture fund in the U.S. for women
founders and women-led startups in the technology and health
sectors. By engaging women who want to align their wealth and
values with positive change, How Women Lead hopes to enlist 10,000
women to invest in other women as a means to build the fund over
time.
Data shows that there is a significant gender gap in venture
capital funding. According to Center for Venture Research:
- Only 5% of accredited women investors have access to invest in
VC funds, even though women control 50% of wealth today.
- Only 1.8% of VC investments go to solely women-led startups.
There are no large funds focused solely on women founders.
- Only 5% of general partners in VC firms are women.
“We are at a unique moment in time, an inflection point, where
we have a generation of women who have risen in the ranks as
corporate leaders and have wealth to invest,” said Julie Castro
Abrams, founder and CEO of How Women Lead. “Investing in
women-founded companies is financially savvy, creates six times
more jobs for women, and results in economic growth for us all.
Collectively we have the wealth to fund women founders and the
expertise and influence to support those companies to success.”
Promoting gender and economic equity among women
entrepreneurs
Wells Fargo also collaborated with the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial
Center, Penn State University, and Fair Pay Workplace to launch a
study looking at pay, ownership and valuation issues affecting the
gender wealth gap among small business owners. Key findings
included:
- 55% of the early-stage women entrepreneurs surveyed do not pay
themselves for work they do for the company.
- Women entrepreneurs were more likely to pay themselves if their
companies were eight years or older.
- One third (34%) of women entrepreneur respondents do not have a
three-month emergency fund for their expenses.
- Access to capital was the number one barrier to company
profitability, growth, and entrepreneur compensation.
- 59% of women entrepreneur respondents said their income varies
from month to month, and 53% said they’re spending equal to or more
than their income.
- Women, particularly women entrepreneurs of color, are leading
the way in fair pay practices.
“This study shows us that women entrepreneurs have extensive
knowledge about fair pay, but the actual practice is not within
their desired reach due to challenges in funding and resources,”
said Nicola Corzine, executive director of the Nasdaq
Entrepreneurial Center. “It is clear that once we remove pervasive
barriers, women entrepreneurs will organically become change agents
for fair pay.”
As a result of this study, a toolkit is available to small
business owners to promote entrepreneurial empowerment and economic
equity. In this step-by-step workbook there are tools, resources,
and video content to guide business owners through what is needed
to get to the place where they are paying themselves a fair wage.
In addition to a pay equity checklist and an interactive workbook,
included are insights, guidance, and learning from leading women
entrepreneurs.
“Acknowledging the gender gaps that exist today is one of the
first steps toward eradicating inequalities,” said Jenny Flores,
head of Wells Fargo Small Business Growth Philanthropy. “By
bringing more awareness, additional resources, and key connections
and conversations to the table, we can create more avenues to
capital, more equality, and help more women reach their full
potential.”
About Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a leading financial
services company that has approximately $1.9 trillion in assets,
proudly serves one in three U.S. households and more than 10% of
small businesses in the U.S., and is the leading middle market
banking provider in the U.S. We provide a diversified set of
banking, investment, and mortgage products and services, as well as
consumer and commercial finance, through our four reportable
operating segments: Consumer Banking and Lending, Commercial
Banking, Corporate and Investment Banking, and Wealth &
Investment Management. Wells Fargo ranked No. 37 on Fortune’s 2021
rankings of America’s largest corporations. In the communities we
serve, the company focuses its social impact on building a
sustainable, inclusive future for all by supporting housing
affordability, small business growth, financial health, and a
low-carbon economy. News, insights, and perspectives from Wells
Fargo are also available at Wells Fargo Stories.
Additional information may be found at www.wellsfargo.com |
Twitter: @WellsFargo
News Release Category: WF-SB
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220309005230/en/
Brittany Anthony (925) 451-0769
Brittany.Anthony@wellsfargo.com
Kim Erlichson (201) 463-4243 Kim.Erlichson@wellsfargo.com
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