THANKS TO ANTARES CAPITAL, $1M IN GRANTS IS AVAILABLE TO SUPPORT UNDERREPRESENTED FOUNDERS

By Jeffrey McKinney

For a second year, private debt firm Antares Capital is issuing $1 million in grants to underrepresented founders, including Black women business owners. Antares is uniting with technology firm Hello Alice on the initiative.

A recent McKinsey & Company report revealed that in 2022 Black founders received just 1% of total U.S. venture capital funding, with a measly 0.1% of that going to Black and Latino female founders.

The Antares program will award about 40 businesses $20,000 each in grants.  Up to 25 grant recipients will also be considered for participation in Antares’ Growth Track program, a digital community space which offers monthly business coaching workshops, mentorship and networking resources.

The grant effort is part of REACH, a program Antares rolled out in 2022 to help diverse and historically underrepresented groups. Check its terms and conditions to learn more and apply. 

 “We launched the REACH program to expand the flow of capital to historically underrepresented groups to address these discrepancies at the root level,” said Mary Rose, head of Responsible Investment Strategy at Antares.

As part of REACH, Antares also backs grassroots community partners to help create a stronger support ecosystem for historically underrepresented small business owners. See more details here.

That capital support is truly needed. Financing has become increasingly difficult for Black founders. BLACK ENTERPRISE reported that Black founders raised an estimated $2.254 billion compared to the $215.9 billion in U.S. venture capital allocated in 2022.

Further, financial backing fell 45% for those businesses last year, making it the largest year-over-year decline for Black entrepreneurs. The numbers offer a grim insight into how challenging VC funding can be for Black founders and business owners.

Simultaneously, roughly three years ago, many of the nation’s largest corporations vowed tens of billions of dollars to support economic growth and new opportunities for Black businesses and individuals. But a significant amount of that funding has not materialized.