Thanks To Antares Capital, $1M In Grants Is Available To Support Underrepresented Founders

For the second straight year, private debt firm Antares Capital is issuing another $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 & Co .report revealed that last year Black founders got 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 $20,000 each in grants to about 40 small businesses. All recipients will each be eligible to receive another $5,000 unrestricted grant after completing a post-grant report and access to professional development opportunities through Hello Alice.

 The grant effort is part of REACH, a program Antares rolled out in 2022 to help diverse and historically underrepresented groups. Check this out to apply and receive more information. 

 “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.