No longer ‘impossible’: Cincinnati entrepreneur launching new fund for Black small business owners

Local entrepreneur Rico Grant is looking to help support the next wave of Black small business owners in Cincinnati with the launch of a new $1.5 million fund, and the effort has landed seed funding from one of the city’s biggest corporations.

Grant, founder of Paloozanoire, owner of Gallery At Gumbo and executive director of SoCap, a Northern Kentucky University-based accelerator, said Fundnoire, a $1.5 million fund dedicated to Black entrepreneurs in Cincinnati, will provide grant money to dozens of Black-owned small businesses to help them launch and grow.

The idea has been months in the making; Fundnoire went public in recent weeks when the enterprise received seed funding from the Kroger Co. Foundation.

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Story excerpt provided by Cincy Inno.

Written by Liz Engel.

Originally published March 10, 2022.