Vice President Harris visits Durham to announce $92 million investment in historically underserved entrepreneurs | News

Vice President Kamala Harris visited Durham on Friday to announce the Biden-Harris administration’s plan to invest $92 million in early-stage startup companies in North Carolina. The visit was part of the administration’s investment tour of the United States.

Harris said the Biden-Harris administration is intentional about investing in communities.

Harris said $32 million in federal funds will go to 10 North Carolina venture capital firms under the Treasury Department’s State Small Business Credit Initiative. This includes her RevTech Labs, a majority-female and Latina-owned entrepreneurship center. LaVert Ventures, her female-owned AgTech fund; And Nex Cubed houses the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Founders Fund for HBCU graduates to launch their entrepreneurial endeavors.

This investment will drive an additional $60 million in private investment in North Carolina, totaling $92 million in funding for small business growth.

Governor Roy Cooper welcomed Harris to the state for the 10th time as vice president.

The event was held on Durham’s historic Black Wall Street. Mr. Cooper began his remarks by mentioning the importance of investing in minority-led businesses.

“If you have a lot of smart people with great ideas and work ethics, and you invest the capital, you can build a successful business,” Cooper said. “However, in the private sector, Black-led businesses receive only 1% of venture funding, and only 2% of venture funding goes to women.”

Cooper cited the 2.6 million jobs created for Black workers and said the Biden-Harris administration will continue to make important strides in expanding opportunities for everyone, especially underserved and underutilized businesses. He said that he had taken steps.

Harris emphasized Cooper’s focus on providing the community with access to appropriate resources and opportunities.

“That’s the map of what we’re talking about,” Harris said. “It is important to meet the capacity of our communities with the resources needed to strengthen our economy, and we all benefit from that.”

Harris said the announcement is consistent with her and Biden’s campaign promises.

“As many of you may know, from the beginning of this administration, the President and I made a commitment to increase federal contracts awarded to minority-owned businesses by 50%, and we are on track to achieve that goal. “I’m here,” Harris said.

Harris said giving more federal contracts to minority-owned businesses is the right thing to do, but it also makes fiscal and economic sense.

“Because the bottom line, and I’m talking in economic terms, is that this creates an extraordinary return on investment,” Harris said. “And that is just as important as any other reason why we are working with our partners on this effort.”