Remember 2020? I know, I know… you’re probably still trying to forget.
But, besides the obvious, it was also a time when every major corporation posted black squares on Instagram and made sweeping declarations about supporting Black-owned businesses. Just six short years ago, the world shifted, and with that shift, diversity and inclusion suddenly became an urgent priority, and boardrooms everywhere promised to do better.
Black women entrepreneurs remember too. And welp, according to a new survey from the New Voices Foundation, they’re still waiting for those promises to materialize into actual support.
The 2025 State of Entrepreneur Sentiment Survey confirms what many founders already suspected: the system isn’t built for them. And while venture capital often dominates conversations about funding inequity, the reality is that most entrepreneurs — including Black women — aren’t even positioned to pursue VC in the first place.
Sad, isn’t it? More importantly, eighty percent of Black women entrepreneurs are scraping together their own savings to fund their businesses because only 17% have been able to secure bank loans, often without the early seed money from friends, family, and professional networks that many entrepreneurs rely on to get started. The rest are piecing together capital however they can, with 42% using credit cards and 39% are chasing grants. It’s an unstable foundation for building what could become the next major beauty, fashion, or education brand. And it’s not by chance. Data from the Federal Reserve and the Small Business Administration consistently shows that Black business owners face loan rejection rates up to three times higher than their white counterparts — a disparity rooted in longstanding institutional bias and systemic inequities in the financial system.
These aren’t small-time side hustles either, because if a Black woman is going to do it, she’s going to do it big. Ninety-eight percent of surveyed founders plan to significantly deepen their customer base by 2030, and 97% are determined to reach profitability. The ambition matches the hustle, but what they don’t have is the same access to capital that other entrepreneurs take for granted.
The double standard is double standarding, too. Sixty-one percent of surveyed founders said investors want to see them further along than everyone else before they’ll fund anything. Black women can show up with customers and revenue and it’s still not enough, while other founders can show up with just a concept and get funded. It immediately takes my mind to when Papa Pope (a Scandal reference for those who don’t know) told Olivia she had to be twice as good as them to get half of what they have. Nearly 60% said they don’t feel confident securing money compared to other entrepreneurs. When you keep hitting the same wall, that stops being a you problem.
Four years after corporate America’s loudest pledges, only about half of the founders surveyed think the support is genuine. The rest? They’re not buying it. Forty-three percent say institutional support has either flatlined or straight up disappeared. The DEI budget cuts came quick, and Black women founders watched the door close in real time.
But what’s probably one of the most important takeaways from the survey is that Black women are adapting. We have no other choice. History has shown us that when institutions fail, our community steps up. As one survey respondent explained: “Informal systems that are locally-focused and physically connected are becoming more and more crucial… Many folks are leaving online spaces—which are susceptible to systemic racism—and returning to a regional lens.”
That shift is something the New Voices Foundation is seeing firsthand.
“There is a powerful shift happening toward community-led growth,” said Marie Clark, Director of the New Voices Foundation. “Our survey shows that peer networks and informal mentorship are now outperforming formal institutional programs in perceived value for Black women. At the New Voices Foundation, we are leaning into this ‘community as currency’ model, providing the tailored resources and high-impact networking that help our founders to bypass systemic friction and focus on what they do best: innovating and leading.”
Black women are building localized networks, supporting regional supply chains, and creating their own ecosystems that don’t rely on corporate goodwill or fluctuating DEI budgets.
Consumers, though, are showing up regardless. Founders say they’ve felt an increase in support for Black-owned businesses over the past three years, which is a silver lining. That loyalty matters when the top challenges you’re facing are finding retail partners, figuring out which sales channels actually work, and getting people to know your brand exists.
Organizations like the New Voices Foundation are trying to close the gap where banks and VCs won’t. They’ve invested nearly $3 million in non-dilutive capital to support women of color entrepreneurs, which matters when Black women receive less than 1% of VC funding nationally, despite being the fastest-growing demographic of entrepreneurs in the country.
The numbers make it clear that traditional systems were never going to work for Black women entrepreneurs. So we stopped waiting.
We’re building our own tables, funding our own visions, and proving we never needed their permission in the first place.