Month: June 2023

Duke Energy has invested more than $1.5 million to the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina since 2017

CHARLOTTE, N.C., June 29, 2023 /3BL/ – The Duke Energy Foundation is awarding $250,000 in grant funds to the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina (EDPNC) to spur new jobs and investment in North Carolina communities.

“The most important investment we can make is in the people and communities we serve,” said Kendal Bowman, president of Duke Energy North Carolina. “This grant aims to maintain and advance efforts to keep North Carolina the top state for business, while creating economic development opportunities in all 100 counties in our state.”

Grant dollars will be used to support EDPNC’s efforts to improve the economic well-being and quality of life for all North Carolinians through collaboration with state, regional, local and private-sector partners in new business recruitment, existing employer support, international trade and export assistance, small business startup counseling, and tourism promotion.

“North Carolina’s economy continues to grow and expand at a record-breaking pace,” said Christopher Chung, CEO of the EDPNC. “We are grateful for Duke Energy’s continued support in helping the EDPNC improve the economic well-being and quality of life for all North Carolinians.”

Duke Energy Foundation

The Duke Energy Foundation provides philanthropic support to meet the needs of communities where Duke Energy customers live and work. The Foundation contributes more than $30 million annually in charitable gifts and is funded by Duke Energy shareholder dollars. More information about the Foundation can be found at duke-energy.com/foundation.

Duke Energy

Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), a Fortune 150 company headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., is one of America’s largest energy holding companies. Its electric utilities serve 8.2 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, and collectively own 50,000 megawatts of energy capacity. Its natural gas unit serves 1.6 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky. The company employs 27,600 people.

Duke Energy is executing an aggressive clean energy transition to achieve its goals of net-zero methane emissions from its natural gas business by 2030 and net-zero carbon emissions from electricity generation by 2050. The company has interim carbon emission targets of at least 50% reduction from electric generation by 2030, 50% for Scope 2 and certain Scope 3 upstream and downstream emissions by 2035, and 80% from electric generation by 2040. In addition, the company is investing in major electric grid enhancements and energy storage, and exploring zero-emission power generation technologies such as hydrogen and advanced nuclear.

Duke Energy was named to Fortune’s 2023 “World’s Most Admired Companies” list and Forbes’ “World’s Best Employers” list. More information is available at duke-energy.com. The Duke Energy News Center contains news releases, fact sheets, photos and videos. Duke Energy’s illumination features stories about people, innovations, community topics and environmental issues. Follow Duke Energy on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.

Duke Energy media contact: Emily Kissee 
Media line: 800.559.3853

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HOUSTON, June 29, 2023 /3BL/ – Today, the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN) and Hello Alice, the fintech helping over one million small businesses access capital, proudly announced the creation of a $70M Equitable Access Fund, with initial funding led by Wells Fargo, that will be developed and deployed over the next five years to improve equitable access to credit and capital amongst small business owners. The fund will provide credit enhancements, including guarantees, loan loss reserves and cash collateral deposits to financing partners to enable them to reasonably increase their risk tolerance to help unlock credit access for underserved high-potential but credit-challenged small business owners.

The fund is part of the Equitable Access Program, which provides increased credit access and financial education to high-potential underserved entrepreneurs with credit challenges. The program is run by Hello Alice and GEN. Wells Fargo provided the initial major grant to start the Equitable Access Fund. Financing Partners of the Equitable Access Fund will include First National Bank of Omaha (FNBO), the issuer of the Hello Alice Small Business Mastercard, and select partners in the Hello Alice Financing Marketplace. Additional key partners of the Equitable Access Program include Mastercard and the Kauffman Foundation.

The fund, managed by GEN, addresses significant untapped demand for business credit among small businesses, especially in those run by members of the New Majority, which includes women, veterans, BIPOC, Latinx, those with disabilities, and LGTBQ among other groups. According to Hello Alice data, only 25% of small business owners have applied for a business credit card, and 85% of those applications were denied due to poor credit or lack of credit. Even so, 90% of small business owners without business credit believe a business card would impact their business in a positive way. Through the Equitable Access Fund, these owners gain a pathway to accessing a business credit card, building their credit profile, and eventually qualifying for traditional credit and lending products needed to grow their businesses. The $70 million fund aims to unlock up to an estimated $1 billion in credit access for thousands of small business owners. Hello Alice and GEN will continue to work with and bring on new financing partners over the next several months to build out the fund and support small business owners in need of credit to grow.

“There is an estimated $40 billion annually of unmet financing demand from BIPOC-owned employers that applied for financing, and an estimated $1 trillion in unmet financing demand from all small businesses nationally,” said Elizabeth Gore and Carolyn Rodz, co-founders of Hello Alice. “The Equitable Access Fund provides credit enhancements that enable our financial partners to reasonably increase their risk tolerance, which ultimately unlocks credit access for those who really need it. We’re looking forward to creating more partnerships and bringing more institutions on board to the fund to achieve the goal of equitable access to credit.”

“The Equitable Access Fund will open doors for high-potential, credit-challenged entrepreneurs to achieve their full potential as founders, job-creators, and agents of change,” said Jonathan Ortmans, founder and president of the Global Entrepreneurship Network. “While our focus is on the United States credit system, we believe the outcomes of this work will also serve as a case study for other nations to learn from and adapt to support under-served entrepreneurs within their jurisdictions.”

The Equitable Access Fund is the latest initiative Wells Fargo has supported as part of its larger commitment to expand community engagement and enterprise philanthropy efforts through the Wells Fargo Foundation. The foundation has a strategic focus on small business growth, financial health, and a sustainable future, which are core tenants of the Equitable Access Program and Fund.

The Equitable Access Program is part of GEN and Hello Alice’s commitment to ensuring that all entrepreneurs and small business owners have access to the capital they need to grow the sustainable businesses that power their communities and economies. As part of the program, small business owners will be provided with wrap-around credit-building education and technical assistance through an assessment tool called the Business Health Score, which launched in April 2023. The score provides a comprehensive overview of a business’s financial health, which allows small business owners to make informed decisions about how to improve financial performance and achieve long-term success through a real-time recommendation engine. Both the score and the fund provide an avenue for banks to better serve small businesses and demonstrate the lucrative value of investing in the New Majority.

For enterprises or foundations interested in supporting this Fund, please reach out to William Charter at the Global Entrepreneurship Network by emailing charterw@genglobal.org.

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ABOUT GEN
The Global Entrepreneurship Network operates programs in 200 countries aimed at making it easier for anyone, anywhere to start and scale a business. By fostering deeper cross-border collaboration and initiatives between entrepreneurs, investors, researchers, policymakers and entrepreneurial support organizations, GEN works to fuel healthier entrepreneurship ecosystems that create more jobs, educate individuals, accelerate innovation and strengthen economic growth. For more information, visit www.genglobal.org and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.

Media Contact:
Kathryn Forrest
kathryn@genglobal.org

ABOUT HELLO ALICE
Founded by Carolyn Rodz and Elizabeth Gore, Hello Alice, a fintech providing credit, loans and grants, is a free platform serving more than one million small business owners across the United States. Committed to equitable access to capital for the New Majority – women, people of color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, veterans, and entrepreneurs with disabilities, Hello Alice offers funding, education, tools, and curated opportunities. Working with enterprise business services, ecosystem partners, affiliates, and government agencies, Hello Alice provides its growing community with everything they need to grow their businesses. Hello Alice serves a diverse community of business owners across the country. Approximately 68% of owners are BIPOC, 63% are female, and 17% are military-affiliated. For small business owners interested in joining the Hello Alice community, they can sign up for free at www.helloalice.com. To learn more, visit www.helloalice.com, as well as Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook.

Media Contact:
Renee Rossi
helloalice@relativity.ventures

One of the most energy-efficient supercomputers in the world (number 7 on the Green500 List – June 2023)1 is powered by AMD technology and is being used to advance climate research. The award-winning LUMI supercomputer in Finland is setting the example for world-class environmental sustainability, winning the Best Sustainability Innovation in HPC award at the 2021 HPC Wire Readers’ and Editors’ choice awards. Powered by 3rd Gen AMD EPYC™ CPUs and AMD MI250 Instinct™ GPUs, it uses 100 percent renewable energy, with up to 200 megawatts available. Free cooling is possible year-round, and LUMI’s waste heat produces approximately 20 percent of the district heat for the area, reducing the city’s carbon emissions by an estimated 12,400 metric tons per year.1

In addition to LUMI’s environmental operating benefits, it is being put to work on some of the world’s most urgent climate-related problems. As part of the European Green Deal and European Digital Strategy, the supercomputer is being used in the Destination Earth project (DestinE), which is funded by the EU’s Digital Europe Programme. The project focuses on climate modeling: the aim is to create a detailed model of Earth – a digital twin of our planet – that can be used to understand climate change and its impacts, including extreme weather phenomena such as floods and hurricanes. With LUMI, researchers can link the climate model to other models to understand the complex interplay between environmental processes and systems.

For more information, please visit: https://www.amd.com/en/solutions/supercomputing-and-research/lumi-hpe.html

Footnotes

1) https://www.top500.org/lists/green500/2023/06/ 
2) https://lumi-supercomputer.eu/sustainable-future/

KeyBank will present a first-time homeownership workshop in Buffalo, NY. Saleem Shabazz, KeyBank Community Development Loan Officer (NMLS# 474996), will offer advice and details on products and assistance programs available to first time homebuyers.

The seminar will take place Wednesday July 5, 2023 from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the Frank E. Merriweather Library located at 1324 Jefferson Avenue in Buffalo.

Admission is free and guests are asked to arrive 15 minutes early.

Get tips on homeownership from KeyBank

KeyBank Member FDIC. NMLS #399797. Mortgage and Home Equity Lending products offered by KeyBank are not FDIC insured or guaranteed. KeyBank extends credit secured by residential real estate without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, handicap, or familial status. All credit products are subject to collateral and/or credit approval, terms, conditions, availability and are subject to change. © 2023 KeyCorp.

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