Umpqua Bank Crowdfunding Partnership Accelerates No-Cost Financing for BIPOC, Women Entrepreneurs

Umpqua Bank – as part of the bank’s Small Business Empowerment Program – announced a partnership with Kiva, a nonprofit unlocking capital through crowd-funded loans for entrepreneurs, to spark the creation and growth of BIPOC and women-owned businesses through a new $1M Umpqua Bank Managed Loan Fund.

The fund will sit on Kiva’s innovative crowd-funding platform and will enable minority and women entrepreneurs across Umpqua Bank’s six state footprint to apply for a 0% interest loan up to $15,000.

Since its founding, Kiva has raised a combined $1.4B for loans for more than 3.6M entrepreneurs in 94 countries. The program’s key differentiators include:

> Immediate Access to Capital: The ability to access loans quickly – participating small businesses do not have to go through lengthy approvals to jump start their business initiatives. Support from their communities is all you need to secure a legitimate source of capital that would otherwise not be available.

> A Growing Program: The $1 million will replenish as loans are paid back – this enables the fund to finance programs on an ongoing basis; this program is step one of a much larger partnership.

Click here for full press release and instructions on how to apply.