Apply to Add-to-Cart

Did you know beauty, health, and wellness is the one industry that continues to grow while others slow in the looming recession? Did you know Black women buy from and start businesses in this industry more than any other demographic (61% compared with 41% of white women & 35% of white men). Did you know Beauty, Health and Wellness is venture-backable? #AddToCart Retail and E-Commerce Fellowship is a 1-year program focused on Black and Latinx Women led CPG, beauty, health, and wellness companies. Each year we will choose five Black women entrepreneurs who are building the future of CPG, Health, Beauty, and Wellness companies to participate in our Black Futures Week pitch.

Each woman chosen will receive a $5,000 grant, resources, and support under our 4Cap Model:

• Monetary Capital - Equity and revenue-based capital to help build inventory and scale processes;
• Infrastructure Capital - Access to product development labs, manufacturing, bottling, distribution and shipping facility to scale their distribution;
• Human Capital - A dedicated team of experts to support entrepreneurs to help them implement and scale their processes and strategies;
• Technical Capital - Building a data-driven, robust tech stack to manage their online and e-commerce platform.

Apply to Melon Kitchen

Melon Kitchen is a ghost kitchen and training platform for emerging Black and Brown chefs and food entrepreneurs. In partnership with 16 Tech, this three-month program will take emerging food entrepreneurs from idea to test kitchen to revenue generation. After the 3-month program, chefs will be prepared to open their own concepts, whether they are brick and mortar restaurants, food trucks, or take-out/delivery only restaurants.

This program will prep emerging chefs to:

• Finalize their business plan
• Licensing and legal set-up
• Menu preparation
• Pricing and revenue strategy
• Hiring staff
• Pitch to investors

This program is supported by Eli Lilly & Co, Cummins, The City of Indianapolis, and JP Morgan Chase

Apply to Skills First

The Nile Fund provides pre-seed or friends and family capital to Be Nimble Foundation pitch, program, fellowship, or accelerator program alumni and participants. Check sizes are anywhere between $10,000 to $50,000 for companies that have a viable business where funding would be helpful to reach the next phase of growth for their entrepreneurship journey.

Apply

Apply to Google Certification Upskilling 

We are excited to be partnering with Google to help upskill 250 Black and Latinx workers. We will be offering a free, 6-month course to certify you in data analytics, digital marketing & e-commerce, IT support, project management, or user experience (UX) design.

BESO (Black Entrepreneur Service Organization) Fellowship: A 10-month fellowship program designed to build sustainable programming and a viable capital stack for ESOs to support their entrepreneurs through mission-aligned program development and direct investment. In 2024, we launched the BESO pilot working with Indiana Fashion Foundation, The Speakeasy, SHE Event Indy, and P30 to help them develop mission-aligned, deeply integrated entrepreneurship programs that deliver big outcomes and allows them invest capital directly into their founders. At the end of the initial cohort, each organization will be given up $100k to invest directly into their founders via low interest loans or other investment types.