The Southeast Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) Business Growth Hub, the regional pilot project building an interconnected business community, has named a new partner in its efforts to build up the local business community.
Earlier this summer, MBDA announced it was partnering with EcoMap Technologies on a new initiative designed to help socially and economically disadvantaged individuals (SEDI) and small businesses.
Ecomap, a Baltimore-based software startup founded in 2018, builds customized, data-driven platforms for entrepreneurial ecosystems.
The platform is no stranger to the Southeast region. It previously helped organizations like LaunchTN understand and track the entrepreneurial ecosystem and its impact across the state.
The goal is to help business owners from all different backgrounds figure out the best way to access the opportunities, capital, and resources needed to grow their businesses no matter where they are located in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
Kirk Barnes, Atlanta-based founder, entrepreneur, and Program Director for MBDA, told Hypepotamus that he sees working with Ecomap as a “vehicle to help women and underrepresented business owners gain access to funding, potential clients and programming that would otherwise be unknown to them.”
And it all comes down to ensuring people in the local entrepreneurial ecosystem have access to the data and resources they need.
“I have discovered that there is a huge disconnect between the business owners that primarily do business with the federal government and business owners that build their business in the private sector,” Barnes added. “That applies to both customers and funding. Imagine if we can blend the two and open the doors to more opportunities even wider. We will connect companies in Atlanta to both federal opportunities and those across the other 11 states in the pilot.
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Featured photo from MBDA website
