Endeavor Miami received a $500,000 funding commitment from JPMorgan Chase to support programming for underrepresented entrepreneurs in South Florida.
The two-year investment will fund scholarships for founders participating in EndeavorLAB, a cohort-based program that offers training and mentorship to Black, Hispanic and women founders. It is part of the bank's $10 million donation to Tech Equity Miami, a consortium directing millions in philanthropic funding to organizations that connects locals and people of color with careers in the technology industry.
"JPMorgan and Endeavor are very aligned with our vision to help founders thrive and scale, so this is a perfect partnership for us," Claudia Duran, managing director of Endeavor Miami, told the Business Journal.
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Endeavor Miami is the first U.S. affiliate of Endeavor, a global nonprofit that has advised more than 1,000 businesses in 37 markets across the world. The Miami organization reports its entrepreneurs have gone on to collectively employ more than 6,000 people and generate $900 million in annual revenue.
In addition to funding EndeavorLab, the JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) commitment will support community building events such as the Endeavor Miami Summit, bootcamps and pitch competitions.
It's all part of Endeavor Miami's mission to build a more inclusive technology ecosystem in South Florida that uplifts founders from underrepresented backgrounds.
Nationally, a majority of venture capital funding is directed to startups led by white men. Companies led by female founders received just 2.1% of the capital invested in venture-backed startups in 2022, the most recent year for which that data is available, according to PitchBook. Black entrepreneurs received less than 2% of all VC dollars that year, with Black women attracting less than 1%, Crunchbase reports.
Duran expects those funding numbers will be even lower for 2023, a sluggish year for venture capital fundraising. Technology entrepreneurs struggled to raise money in a high interest rate environment, PitchBook reports.
"The market changed so drastically that it was hard for all entrepreneurs to raise capital, but it was even harder for women and people of color," Duran said. "It's ridiculous how little funding there is for those founders."
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Backing local ventures that can scale and hire in South Florida is another goal for Endeavor Miami. In a recent Endeavor Insight report, the organization reported homegrown businesses generate 70% of jobs for local economies when they hit moderate scale.
However, more than half all startups in Miami are struggling, the report said. Only 1% employed 50 or more people after five years of operation. EndeavorLAB was created to give founders the resources, connections and mentorships they need to grow successfully.
"Small businesses are the fabric of our economy and the lifeblood of our shared city," Maria Escorcia, southeast region executive for global philanthropy at JPMorgan Chase, said in a statement. "We believe opportunities for success should be accessible to all and look forward to helping the participants of the EndeavorLAB program succeed.”
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