Grameen America Helps Low-Income Women Business Owners With Loan Capital and Credit-Building

Grameen America is the fastest growing nonprofit microfinance organization in the United States. Atlanta is the 25th U.S. city where the fund has set up operations. The new Grameen America Atlanta office is being funded through partnerships with The Studio@Blue Meridian, Truist Foundation, Investor and philanthropist Robert F. Smith and Regions Bank which donated $1million. 

What does Grameen America do?

Grameen America provides low-income women business owners with loan capital, financial education, asset- and credit-building, and peer support. Since 2008, Grameen America has reached more than 170,000 women living in underserved communities across the United States and recently achieved a record milestone of investing over $3 billion in capital to emerging entrepreneurs. The organization’s repayment rate is over 99% and its members have achieved an average credit score of 653 through participation in the program.

Atlanta is known for its strong women entrepreneur base, so it was a natural that the organization would eventually set up shop here. The fund started making inroads into the metro area in June 2022.

Learn more about the plans for Grameen America and women entrepreneurs. 

Helping Black Women Entrepreneurs Start and Expand a Business

A growing number of firms have opened their treasure chests to Black woman entrepreneurs. They, in turn, are often using the financing to help other Black women start or expand a business.

The median seed funding raised by a Black woman founder is $125,000, nowhere near the national median of $2.5 million in 2020, according to ProjectDiane. In the first half of 2021, Crunchbase data revealed that only 0.34% of capital went to businesses run by Black women.

The article for Black Enterprise Magazine goes on to say that more efforts are surfacing to provide funding to Black women, or people of color in general, such as the Goldman Sachs’ One Million Black Women initiative, Fortune reported. One firm that is seeing the capital flowing steadily is the Fearless Fund, which works to increase Black representation in venture capital and support women of color.