The federal government is investing $189 million to keep the Black Entrepreneurship Program going for another five years. 

“When Black entrepreneurs can access capital, mentorship, and reliable data, they turn ideas into jobs and community prosperity.”

Rechie Valdez, Minister of Women and Gender Equality

The initiative launched with $221 million in 2021 to provide funding and resources to Black entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized business owners. It provides financing, training, mentorship, and networking opportunities through three programs: the National Ecosystem Fund, the Black Entrepreneurship Loan Fund, and the Black Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub (BEKH).

The renewed funding will keep capital flowing through the programs, expand its advisory support, and improve its data collection. 

The federal government’s Regional Development Agencies, which include the likes of Pacific Economic Development Canada (PacifiCan) and Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), have been allocated up to $105.4 million to expand the geographic coverage of the Ecosystem Fund. FedDev Ontario recently invested $2.4 million to support the Black Entrepreneurship Alliance’s incubator programs.

The Black Entrepreneurship Loan Hub will have up to $67 million earmarked to provide loans of up to $250,000 to Black business owners and entrepreneurs across the country. Fund administrator The Federation of African Canadian Economics (FACE) and the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) will also continue collaborating on the project. Alongside American non-profit Black Ambition, FACE awarded $200,000 to Black founders as part of the inaugural Melamoon pitch competition earlier this month. 

BDC’s venture arm created its own $100-million Black Entrepreneurs Fund last year. In March, the organization tapped Jason Baibokas to define the investment thesis and criteria of the fund.

RELATED: FedDev Ontario pledges millions to support Black entrepreneurs

BEKH, led by Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business and Dream Legacy Foundation, will receive up to $7.5 million to conduct large-scale qualitative and quantitative research on Black entrepreneurship in Canada. The research maps Black business ecosystems across the country to identify critical gaps where Black entrepreneurs are facing the greatest challenges.

“When Black entrepreneurs can access capital, mentorship, and reliable data, they turn ideas into jobs and community prosperity,” Minister of Women and Gender Equality, Rechie Valdez, said in a statement. “This $189-million investment in renewing the Black Entrepreneurship Program will help more Black entrepreneurs start up, scale up, and build a stronger economy for all Canadians.”

The renewed programming comes as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in Canada’s private sector fall to the wayside in the wake of a wide-scale rollback in the United States. Earlier this year, Canadian tech giant Shopify dismantled its Equitable Commerce team and removed a webpage for its One Million Black Businesses initiative. On Feb. 1, the start of Black History Month, the company also locked a Slack program support channel for Black business owners. 

The government claims that the Black Entrepreneurship Program has supported more than 24,000 Black entrepreneurs across the country, with 801 loans, representing more than $70.6 million, approved under the Black Entrepreneurship Loan Fund.

Disclosure: BetaKit majority owner Good Future is the family office of two former Shopify leaders, Arati Sharma and Satish Kanwar.

Feature image courtesy Unsplash. Photo by Iwaria Inc.