The faces of entrepreneurship are changing. Despite a two-decade decline in the overall entrepreneur population, the number of Indigenous and Black-led businesses is growing, counteracting this trend. To ensure these business creators can thrive, BDC has created a dedicated Inclusive Entrepreneurship team, is launching a $50 million financing and training program, and investing $200 million in Indigenous and Black-led businesses.
“Too many underrepresented entrepreneurs continue to face the same barriers that existed a decade, or even a generation ago,” said Isabelle Hudon, President and CEO, BDC. “Despite a lot of positive strides, we just aren’t moving quickly enough. It’s clear a one-size-fits-all approach does not work and, like the entrepreneurs we serve, we must innovate. The initiatives announced today are part of BDC’s efforts to drive greater economic impacts and increase productivity.”
As a development bank, BDC takes on more risk to help entrepreneurs and grow the economy. The bank identifies market gaps, and partners with others to create solutions that address the unique challenges faced by entrepreneurs and that mainstream lenders can use. Using this same innovative approach, BDC is aiming to propel more businesses with three key initiatives.
The bank’s new Inclusive Entrepreneurship Team leads with an inclusion mindset and puts that intention at the centre of every client experience. They have increased accountability with measurable targets around business development entrepreneur training, and are already testing regional programs with business centres to better serve entrepreneurs where they are.
Recognizing the barriers are highest, and trust is lowest, among the smallest and earliest-stage businesses, their first act was creating a new $50M program that provides loans, plus training, for businesses that are majority-owned by women, Indigenous and Black entrepreneurs and have revenues under $3 million.
Lastly, BDC Capital, BDC’s investment arm, is creating two new $100M platforms to support Indigenous and Black-led businesses. This will complement the $500M Thrive Platform for Women (launched in 2022) which includes Indigenous and Black women entrepreneurs. The team is currently working to hire key roles from the Black and Indigenous communities and collaborating with them to design and set objectives for the platforms. More details will come later this year.
“A critical driver of creating intergenerational wealth for Black communities is equitable support for Black-owned businesses,” said Lise Birikundavyi, Managing Partner, BKR Capital. “With less than 0.5% of venture capital dollars in North America going towards Black entrepreneurs, there is a clear gap to fill. Since we started our fund focused on Black founders, we have seen an incredible amount of quality opportunities, and we believe it is great news to see an organization like BDC join forces to create a more diversified and robust venture capital industry.”
These initiatives expand BDC’s long-standing support for diverse entrepreneurs. Last year, BDC increased its women and Indigenous clients by 11% and 22% respectively. To date, BDC has committed over $8B dollars to underserved business owners directly through programs like the Indigenous Entrepreneur Loan and Thrive Fund, and indirectly through partners like Futurpreneur, FACE, NACCA, BKR Capital, and Raven Capital. Hundreds of free education resources are also available at bdc.ca.