UBS and Hello Alice Award $1 Million in Grants to 40 Female Founders of Color
Project Entrepreneur, a UBS program designed to level the playing field for female founders, and Hello Alice, a multi-channel platform that helps businesses launch and grow, announced the winners of its Democratizing the Friends & Family Round program, which attracted 12,000 applications.
The program was announced in October 2021 and was built to help close the equity gap that female founders of color experience when obtaining access to capital.
Due to popular demand, the program increased the amount of grants available from 30 to 40.
In total, $1 million has been distributed to early-stage, high-growth companies led by female founders of color. Some of the winning companies included, STEAM-focused gaming for girls, artificial intelligence-powered beauty brands, med-tech innovations, and artisanal food products.
The founders will use the grants to help their companies reach their next big milestone and, in some cases, is a life-changing injection of capital.
Female founders of color have historically been denied equitable access to capital of all forms. Black and Latinx female founders receive less than 1% of venture capital1, but the funding gaps start far before founders of color prepare to raise their first venture round.
Nearly 40% of early-stage entrepreneurs2 raise initial funding through a “Friends and Family” investment round.
“It’s hard building a company from scratch. Any time you get that support of people who believe in you and want to contribute to that journey it makes a huge difference, and I am just so thankful,” said grant recipient Dr. Christine Izuakor, Founder & CEO of Cyber Pop-up.
“As a bootstrapped, self-made manufacturer, our capital is tied up in production, giving little budget for sales and marketing. This grant will boost our efforts in sharing Numa with more people,” said grant recipient Joyce Zhu, Founder & CEO of Numa Foods.