PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: PYPL) today announced the second Venmo Small Business Grant, a program for small and emerging businesses providing financial grants and mentorship for 20 Venmo business profile customers. The selected businesses will each receive $10,000 for expenses, such as rent, or to help digitize and promote their businesses.
In addition to providing a financial grant, the Venmo Small Business Grant program provides recipients with access to technical expertise and mentorship on topics such as legal services, financial analysis, digital marketing, and more. These resources are provided in partnership with Start Small Think Big, along with skilled PayPal and Venmo employees who will provide mentoring, coaching, and pro bono services.
As part of PayPal's ongoing commitment to advancing racial equity and creating an inclusive economy, the selection process for Venmo Small Business Grants will also help to support the growth of small businesses in underrepresented communities.
"When the Venmo Small Business Grant program first launched last year, we received nearly 15 times the number of applications we expected, demonstrating the substantial need for additional support among the small business community," said Erika Sanchez, Vice President and General Manager, Venmo. "We're excited to bring the program back this year to provide financial support and mentorship for small businesses, the backbone of our economy."
Since the launch of Venmo business profiles in February 2021, more than 2.5 million small businesses have created profiles to organize, market, and grow their business cost-effectively. Last year's Venmo Small Business Grant recipients used the grant to grow their businesses in several ways:
Grow for Good 417
Growing up on a small farm, Craig Granger spent most of his time working with plants and helping his grandmother raise money for the Memphis Botanical Gardens. This passion continued throughout college and in the years after graduating where he and his partner started to donate plants to nonprofit auctions in order to clear out space. This has grown into his business today, Grow for Good 417, a shop that sells plants, unique garden art, and hosts plant parties.
According to Craig, he turned to Venmo because it "helps me build my community by accepting payments for the plants I sell at ease—even if I don't have a credit card reader on hand."
"Winning the Venmo grant meant quite a bit to us," said Craig. "It meant that we were able to help out the community by sponsoring nonprofits throughout the year [and] helped us expand our business to a more permanent location in a shipping container."
Cake Café
A lot of today's small business owners left the corporate world to pursue their passions. Verná Mungin left a job she knew like the back of her hand to go to culinary school. Now she owns Cake Café, a dessert shop that specializes in custom cakes and cake jars.
Verná found the mentorship services as part of the program helpful and informative. "The round table with Start Small Think Big helped break [big responsibilities] down into simple things that I could do," she said. "I left that round table with five pages of notes. They helped with simple marketing ideas I could do myself."
Krysalis Kouture
Krysalis Kouture makes vibrant and expertly crafted headscarves for those who have experienced hair loss. The business was born from owner Paloma Soledad's experience with cancer and has blossomed into a successful small business.
"Winning the small business grant meant the world to me," said Paloma.
"It not only enabled me to pay for things that I had to do, but it gave me hope, and you need that to feel like you can keep going sometimes."
To enter this year's Venmo Small Business Grant, entrants must set up a Venmo business profile and complete an application by August 7, 2023, at 11:59 p.m. EST. Recipients will be announced in September 2023 based on an evaluation from our judging committee. More details on the Venmo Small Business Grant and the application can be found on the program's landing page.
