PROVIDENCE – As the economy emerges from the pandemic crisis, the R.I. Commerce Corp. board of directors on Monday approved the awarding of $1.4 million in Innovation Network Matching Grants to firms and nonprofits that support small businesses in the state.
“In the COVID-19 era and emerging from the COVID-19 crisis, what we wanted to do was ensure that … we would support as many organizations as we can,” said Commerce Secretary Stefan Pryor.
How the Fastest Growing and Most Innovative Companies Utilize Technology for Their Success
As the Managing Director of RIHub, Rhode Island’s Innovation Hub, I have the privilege of…
Learn More
Pryor says he hopes the funds will be used by the 11 recipients this year to “support struggling businesses, businesses that are finding their sea legs” and businesses that are seeking additional resources, access to capital and technical assistance.
“We want to give them a boost,” Pryor said.
The list of 11 recipients includes Hope & Main, a Warren-based nonprofit food business incubator, which received the largest matching grant, worth $248,000. The funding will go to the development of the 222 Manton Coalition, a group that supports minority business enterprises with technical assistance, according to the R.I. Commerce board.
Other recipients include: We Make Rhode Island ($183,240); the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City ($158,535); United Way of Rhode Island Inc. ($118,939); Visual Thrive LLC ($107,153); New England Medical Innovation Center LLC ($100,000); the Rhode Island Black Business Association ($100,000); the Rhode Island Small Business Coalition ($100,000); Branchfood ($99,600); Entrepreneurship for All, or EforAll ($56,667); and Innovation Studio Inc. ($50,000).
Several of these organizations are using the funds to establish or continue operating business hubs and accelerator programs meant to support small and new businesses in the state. However, the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City is using its funds to support succession planning for business owners who are ready to retire.
Earlier this year, when there was a $900,000 annual allocation for the program and an expectation to only use $500,000, Pryor said R.I. Commerce became “overwhelmed” by the amount of applications it received for the matching grants, which amounted to $2 million. Given the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, R.I. Commerce wanted to approve as many as it could, he said, adding that additional funding to make up the $1.4 million was allocated from within R.I. Commerce.
Businesses that R.I. Commerce is “especially interested in” assisting through the matching grant program, Pryor says, are minority businesses, nonprofits and organizations in industries that are struggling.
Two of the current recipients received similar matching grants in the past, including the Rhode Island Black Business Association and New England Medical Innovation Center LLC, according to R.I. Commerce.
Board member Vanessa Toledo-Vickers and others on the board questioned the impact of these annual investments and how the state will measure them and identify gaps in the system of support provided by the state through this matching grant program. Toledo-Vickers says this is important because she hears too often from small businesses in Rhode Island that say state support is inadequate.
“It shouldn’t all be self-reporting, in terms of how all the businesses feel, whether the services provided to them were a value or not,” Toledo-Vickers said.
Pryor says R.I. Commerce will build a framework for evaluations, while balancing the need to get the funds out quickly.
“We have to move rapidly,” Pryor said.
Gov. Daniel J. McKee, who serves as chairperson of the board, said Rhode Island needs to “keep up the momentum” in its economic revival and that supporting small business is an important part of that. McKee said the matching grants follow up his announcement this week that $32 million of the state’s $1.1 billion in American Rescue Plan Act funds will be used to support small businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
McKee says he wants the state to improve its Thumbtack survey rating for Rhode Island, which received C+ for small-business friendliness earlier this year. McKee said in his first four years as lieutenant governor, Rhode Island was getting F grades but has been improving since then.
“Investing in small business is a piece of it,” McKee said. “That doesn’t mean we’re not investing in big businesses and working on the bigger projects as well.”
Marc Larocque is a PBN staff writer. Contact him at Larocque@PBN.com.
