The SBA, Bank of America, Fortune and the Initiative for A Competitive Inner City are co-sponsoring the Inner City Capital Connections program, which educates investment-read urban companies about sources of capital and potential investors. This initiative is targeting inner-city entrepreneurs in an attempt to connect more young businesses to capital.
The program plans to put 180 inner-city companies through a training workshop on raising funds in Detroit on Oct. 24. After the workshop, participants will be invited to pitch their business ideas to potential investors in New York on Friday, November 9 as part of the ICCC’s “National Matching Day†where participants can obtain one-on-one feedback from consultants. Participants will also be assisted in optimizing their business growth strategy, discovering the full range of financial options available to grow their business as well as promote and display their company’s products.
Eligible companies have to be headquartered in or have 51% percent of more physical operations in an economically distressed urban area of the US; or 40% or more of the company’s employees must reside in an economically distressed urban area of the U.S.
Economically distressed is defined as urban areas that currently have higher unemployment and poverty rates, and lower median income levels than the surrounding Metropolitan area. Since 2005, 275 inner city businesses and 150 equity and debt providers have participated in ICCC. These companies have raised $406 million in capital and created nearly 2,800 jobs.
The deadline for applications is this Friday, Oct. 19, 2012