Financing

DoorDash will match loans to Black-owned businesses

The move is one of several new initiatives by the company to help the Black community.
doordash black lives matter
Photo courtesy of DoorDash

DoorDash is taking more steps to support Black-owned businesses, pledging to match loans to those companies and easing some of its fees.

The initiatives announced Wednesday are in addition to the third-party delivery company’s earlier $1 million donation to support Black communities and businesses. They come amid a national discussion about race sparked by the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police in May. 

DoorDash's loan program aims to help improve Black-owned businesses' access to capital by matching funds from Kiva, a nonprofit lending company. DoorDash has established a $150,000 revolving loan fund to support the program, the company said. The Kiva loans are crowdsourced and come with a 0% interest rate and no fees.

The company will also ease some fees to help Black-owned business partners, including $0 delivery fees for customers who order from them through the end of the year and free sign-up with no commissions for 30 days for independent Black-owned restaurants.

DoorDash is also updating its mobile app to highlight Black-owned businesses who opt in. A new feature will make them searchable using the keyword “Black-owned” and add a banner to their store page. Black-owned businesses will also be highlighted in in-app carousels in some markets.  

The company said searches for Black-owned businesses on its app were up 275 times in June compared to the previous month.

Last month, Uber Eats waived delivery fees for customers who order from Black-owned restaurants through the end of the year and donated $1 million to the Equal Justice Initiative and Center for Policing Equity.

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