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MBDA Launches Minority Entrepreneurship VC Initiative
On July 2, the U.S. Commerce Department’s Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) and the Emerging Venture Network (EVN) launched the MBDA Equity Capital Access (MECA) Program to increase minority entrepreneurs access to capital.
MBDA hopes the initiative will help address the fact that minority firms receive only two percent of all private equity.
The MECA program is one of the first to offer minority entrepreneurs equity capital training of this kind at a national level. The program’s first major project will be a business plan competition organized through the five MBDA regional offices. MBDA and EVN will identify up to 200 entrepreneurs to assess and give a scored evaluation with written comments on strengths, weaknesses and areas for improvement.
Of those 200 entrepreneurs, 25 will be selected to participate in an intensive training session, or "boot camp," where selected applicants will be drilled in the fundamentals of obtaining venture capital. The boot camp will take place during the National Minority Enterprise Development (MED) week-long conference in Washington, D.C., September 24-27, 2002.
Five of the 25 selected businesses will present their concepts at MED Week to a panel of venture capital experts for feedback and coaching.
The deadline for online applications is Friday, August 9, 2002. Additional information is available at http://www.evn.org/ or http://www.mbda.gov/.