LEANLAB Honors Black And Latinx Innovators In Education By Awarding $50K In Seed Grants
Recently, LEANLAB Education of Kansas City, began their Micro-Grant Support Fund initiative. The initiative awarded grants of up to $5,000 to 19 Black and Latinx innovators who are working toward a better education for Kansas City children, according to LEANLAB. Eighty-nine percent of the selected entrepreneurs are local.
According to LEANLAB, Black entrepreneurs, on-average, start businesses with 67 percent less in capital than white entrepreneurs; and on top of that, this pandemic has hit black and Latinx business the hardest. From February to April, 41 percent of black and 32 percent of Latinx-owned businesses closed, while only 17 percent of white-owned businesses closed. The micro-grant recipients chosen were selected based on their commitment to increasing access to quality learning opportunities in alignment with LEANLAB’s core values — boldness, human-centered design and equity.
“I know firsthand how challenging launching a startup can be for anyone, and especially for founders of color,” said Boody, co-founder and CEO of LEANLAB Education, announcing the first recipients of the non-profit’s $50,000 Micro-Grant Support Fund. “All the entrepreneurs we support do this work because of a desire to improve the way we educate all students. This fund supports the next generation of founders who want to develop innovations and non-profits from the big ideas they’ve created in their own classrooms and communities.”
Micro-Grant Support Fund Recipients:
· BAM
· BLOC
· LEC
· Pennez
· PlaBook