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Wells Fargo invests $13M to help diverse small businesses

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04 May 2021 Elena Miramar Print Email
fund to help small businesses in California help to diverse small businesses Bay Area

Fund grants to provide capital and technical assistance to entrepreneurs impacted by the pandemic

Wells Fargo has announced $13 million in grants to Bay Area Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) to help small businesses stay open and maintain local jobs. The funding will help the CDFIs provide grants, loans, technical assistance, and business coaching for diverse entrepreneurs.

The grants are part of Wells Fargo’s Open for Business Fund (OFB) program, a $420 million small business recovery effort across the U.S. to help entrepreneurs recover and rebuild. Wells Fargo will continue to make OFB awards through 2022. The initiative focuses on three key areas: increasing access to capital through CDFIs, technical assistance, and long-term recovery and resiliency programs.  Already, the Open for Business Fund is helping a projected 22,000 small businesses keep an estimated 66,000 jobs nationwide.

The Open for Business grantees include six CDFIs based in the Bay Area:

• Community Vision Capital & Consulting, San Francisco
• Feed the Hunger Fund, San Francisco
• ICA, Oakland
• Low Income Investment Fund, San Francisco
• Opportunity Fund, San José
• Pacific Community Ventures, Oakland

"Small businesses are the fabric of our communities and they needed our support more than ever," said Accion Opportunity Fund CEO Luz Urrutia. "Thanks to the support of Wells Fargo and others, we've been able to defer $4.8 million in over 4,000 loan payments, forgiven more than $3.2 million in debt for over 4,000 payments, and advised more than 10,000 small business owners who turned to Accion Opportunity Fund for expert advice. This grant will allow us to continue offering more rebuilding options to our small business community and, together, regenerate our Main Street economy.”

Nearly half of all Americans are employed by small businesses, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. According to the Wells Fargo Q4 Small Business Index survey, small business owners see a long and tough road ahead. Nearly 60% of small business owners say they don’t expect businesses like theirs to fully recover from the effects of the pandemic until the second half of 2021 or later.

“The Open for Business Fund enlists the expertise of CDFIs to urgently assist small business owners with capital and technical assistance so they can preserve local jobs in some of the most negatively impacted communities,” said Erica Trejo, senior vice president, Wells Fargo Social Impact and Sustainability. “By working with Bay Area CDFIs, we can ensure that minority-owned small businesses in our community receive the resources they need to keep their businesses open.”    

“The sharp decline in business and revenue caused by COVID-19 puts workers and businesses at great risk and these funds will help small businesses recover and save jobs,” said Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf.