Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves traveled to Chicago Jan. 13, with the aim of bringing attention to the newly announced Minority Business Development Agency’s Capital Readiness Program.
The program is a grant competition worth $93.5 million dedicated to helping minority, women and other underserved entrepreneurs grow and scale their businesses, according to a Jan. 17 Commerce Department news release.
“Entrepreneurship is a pathway to the American dream. It creates good jobs, sparks innovation, encourages greater investment in communities and helps build generational wealth,” Graves said, according to the release.
The Biden administration has made consistent, sizable efforts to assist minority-owned businesses and minority entrepreneurs, as well as women and other groups that have been historically left out of the business world, the release reported. The Capital Readiness Program is the largest program of its kind in the history of the Commerce Department.
One of the project’s main aims is to create a national network of incubators and accelerators across the country that have the expertise to assist and train minority and other underserved entrepreneurs, according to the release.
“With the Capital Readiness Program, we’re going to build on MBDA’s track record of success and give more minority business enterprises and underserved entrepreneurs the tools they need to thrive,” Graves said in the release.
