The Small Business Administration tapped Brookfield-based Fiserv Inc. to help facilitate its grant program for restaurants.
The agency has not yet announced an opening day for businesses to apply to the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, a grant program created in the latest federal Covid-19 stimulus package. When it opens, eligible foodservice businesses can seek a piece of the $28.6 billion fund to address their pandemic-related revenue losses.
Ahead of the eventual opening day, the SBA announced it partnered with four technology firms to ease the application process for restaurants. Among them is Fiserv (Nasdaq: FISV), which will support the grant program with its Clover point-of-sale system.
Fiserv acquired the Clover device and technology in 2019, when it purchased First Data Corp.
In addition to Fiserv, the SBA said it also is working with NCR Corp., Square and Toast to support the RRF application process.
“This collaboration is just one example of the many innovative and creative ways we’re connecting with entrepreneurs in the hardest-hit and underserved communities,” SBA administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman said in the announcement. “The SBA must be as entrepreneurial as the entrepreneurs we serve. These partnerships enable us to meet small businesses where they are, instead of waiting for them to come to us.”
The technology firms will work with the SBA to allow food establishments to access the application itself or the data needed for the application. The firms will provide different services, according to the SBA. They range from a fully integrated application process to pre-packaged documentation to interactive webinars.
Jeff Dickerson, the head of Clover, said the partnership with the SBA would expedite the RRF application process for clients, “facilitating faster access to much-needed capital so they can continue to serve customers and their communities.”
“We are proud to do our part to support a critical initiative that will aid restaurant reopening and do so with a focus on revitalizing women-owned, veteran-owned and minority-owned restaurants,” Dickerson said in the release.
Fiserv also played a role in the SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program, a forgivable loan program many businesses used in the past year for extra capital during the pandemic. The firm worked with lenders to streamline the application process.
Food establishments that do not have access to the application process through a point-of-sale service provider can submit their materials for the new grant program online at restaurants.sba.gov. The agency said it is in talks with other parties to help with the program, too.
