NC Invest initiative provides funding for women, minority business owners

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- Raleigh restaurateur Angela Salamanca is getting ready to open her fifth place. Mala Pata will join other spots in the Gateway Shopping Center once construction wraps up.

Salamanca is crossing her fingers that doors will open by the end of April.

"(It's a) Mexican restaurant / Latin-American restaurant. Our focus is masa-driven products," she said.

Salamanca said that even two decades after opening her first restaurant, gaining access to capital was trying as a woman and minority.

"I'm always clicking all those boxes, right, but my experience has always been challenging," she said. "I would say it's probably gotten harder to secure funding for loans."

Female and minority-owned businesses face significant disparities when it comes to accessing capital.

It's been one year since then-Vice President Kamala Harris was in Durham to announce North Carolina would be awarded $32 million to address this issue.

The focus of the NC Invest initiative is to help underserved black or female-owned businesses.

The funding is starting to arrive in the Triangle.

Loan Well just received about $3 million and will soon start handing out that money to those who have struggled to get financing.

"Small businesses typically are denied loans, especially small dollar loans ... loans less than $100,000," said Loan Well co-founder Justin Straight. "When you are able to provide small-dollar loans, this reaches more minority and female-led businesses."

The National Women's Business Council finds on average, that women start their business with half as much capital as men.

The United States Business Development Agency said that while minorities own 29% of all businesses, they are three times more prone to be rejected for loans than non-minority owners.

"Unfortunately, over 40% of loan applications in North Carolina are being denied because they're going towards traditional banks. That's two times higher than a national average. We see this as an opportunity to really change the current," said Straight.

The venture capital group Wocstar Capital, the WOC stands for women of Color, is participating in the initiative and just wrote its first check in our state.

"This is how we create jobs," said Wocstar Capital CEO Gayle Jennings-Brynn. "By us being there and showing success, we hope to attract other entrepreneurs."

Jennings-Brynn said that despite concerns about the health of the economy, North Carolina is still a good breeding ground for business.

"The market and the economy love winners," she said. "Everyone should just be working on success, growing really good companies, building really great technology."

Salamaca is doing just that. She hopes the initiative offers the opportunity to other women and ethnic minorities to bring dreams to fruition.

"We really are working out of a passion for a project that we want to do. Funding is always really scarce, so we will take any terms that we can get and it is often to the demise of the business," she said.