The money is real. The question — as it has always been for Black entrepreneurs in Minnesota — is whether the infrastructure will reach us.Minnesota’s Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) reports that its Small Business Support Network (SBSN) connected 3,214 clients with services and channeled more than $29 million in critical funding in just the first three months of 2026. The network helped launch 170 new businesses, create more than 400 new full-time positions, and retain over 6,700 existing jobs statewide. Powered by a $5.1 million Small Business Assistance Partnership grant distributed across 21 partner organizations, the initiative represents one of the most comprehensive small business infrastructure efforts in recent state history.For Black Twin Cities — for the North Side, for Rondo, for Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center, for every corner of this metro where Black entrepreneurs have been building against the grain — the question is the same one we have always had to ask: Is this network showing up where we are?
The $29 million is a number. The real story is who it reaches — and who it doesn’t.Access is the issueMinnesota’s racial wealth gap is not an abstraction. It is a daily operational reality for Black business owners who have watched capital flow past their doors for generations. The SBSN’s 21 partner organizations include Small Business Development Centers, regional economic development agencies, and community lenders — institutions that have historically been more accessible to white-owned businesses with established credit histories, collateral, and banking relationships.That does not make those institutions bad actors. But it makes intentionality essential. If DEED’s network is going to serve Black Minnesota, it must be measured not just by aggregate numbers but by demographic reach: How many of those 3,214 clients were Black? How many of the 170 new businesses launched were Black-owned? How much of that $29 million landed in North Minneapolis, in Rondo, in communities where the infrastructure deficit is deepest?Those are the questions Insight News is asking — and will continue to ask — of DEED, of its partner organizations, and of every public institution that claims the mantle of equitable economic development.Child care as economic justiceAmong the network’s notable investments is a $240,000 DEED Office of Child Care grant supporting Lil Chompers, a child care center in rural Rice County. The center is taking an intergenerational approach, building a new facility adjacent to a nursing home and assisted living complex to allow children and elders to learn together.
The significance here extends beyond a single rural county. Child care availability is one of the most acute barriers facing Black working families and Black entrepreneurs alike. When child care infrastructure fails — and in Minnesota it fails disproportionately in communities of color — women bear the cost first. Black women, who are the fastest-growing segment of entrepreneurs in the country, bear it hardest. Every dollar invested in expanding child care capacity is a dollar invested in Black economic participation.”We are taking an intergenerational approach. The facility is being built adjacent to LifeCare Medical Center’s assisted living and nursing home to allow for intergenerational learning.” — Karen Dvergsten, President, Lil ChompersWhat comes nextDEED has announced additional resources on the horizon. A July Small Business Call will focus on e-commerce strategy, workforce retention, and labor market intelligence — areas where Black-owned businesses have often been underserved by mainstream business education. New tools including the Minnesota Angel Investor Network and the redesigned Hatch Bloomington grant competition are opening additional pathways for early-stage capital.Angel investment has historically been one of the most racially inequitable funding mechanisms in American capitalism — early-stage capital has flowed overwhelmingly to white founders. If the Minnesota Angel Investor Network is serious about changing that pattern, it will require proactive outreach to Black entrepreneurs, culturally competent investment review processes, and public accountability for who receives funding.Insight News will be watching. So will the entrepreneurs on the North Side who are not waiting for permission to build.The bottom lineTwenty-nine million dollars. One hundred seventy new businesses. More than six thousand seven hundred jobs retained. These are consequential numbers, and we do not diminish them. Minnesota’s commitment to small business infrastructure has real potential to strengthen Black economic life — but only if that commitment is matched by the specificity of delivery.That’s how close it is. The infrastructure exists. The question is whether it will be deployed with the intentionality that Black Minnesota has earned and demanded for fifty years. We are not asking for anything that has not already been promised. We are asking for the promise to be kept.This article was produced with AI assistance.
