Nonprofit microfinance organization Grameen America has announced plans to accelerate its commitment to racial equity by providing $1.3 billion in loans to Black women entrepreneurs over the next decade.

With catalytic funding from The Studio @ Blue Meridian, the Elevating Black Women Entrepreneurs initiative will provide loan capital, financial training, and asset- and credit-building tools to more than eighty thousand Black women business owners in the United States by 2030. To help meet its goal, the organization — which currently operates twenty-four branches in seventeen cities — will launch a network of new branches over the next three years,  enabling it to develop and implement new programmatic solutions for Black women entrepreneurs at scale. In addition to opening new branches, starting with Memphis, the organization will expand its existing operations in New York City and Newark, New Jersey.

"Elevating Black Women Entrepreneurs is a solution to the formal banking system which can uphold racial inequality by systemically denying Black women the same access and opportunity as other entrepreneurs in the United States," said Alethia Mendez, Elevating Black Women Entrepreneurs division president at Grameen America. "Our team is poised to support the ingenuity and grit of Black women entrepreneurs across the country to grow their businesses and energize their communities."