Facebook is cashing out on small businesses owned by women and minorities!
According to CNBC, the social media network has announced that it will purchase $100 million worth of unpaid invoices from 30,000 small businesses through the Facebook Invoice Fast Track program. It’s the company’s latest effort to build relationships with the businesses that look to the platform as a place to help their businesses thrive.
Facebook first launched a version of the program in 2020. After learning the hardships businesses were facing, they wanted to do more than just feature them on the platform.
“We just heard first-hand the financial hardships that these suppliers were facing, and it was created really quickly and brought up as an idea and pitched to our CFO to say, ‘Hey, would we be able to help our suppliers with this?” said Rich Rao, Facebook’s vice president of small business. “It was a very small pilot, but we did see that be very successful.”
Today, they have expanded that original program in order to continue to move the needle for small businesses.
“It’s a new concept, but we’re really excited about it,” continued Rao.
CNBC reports the goal of the program is to put “money in the hands of small businesses that would have otherwise had to wait weeks if not months to get paid by their customers.”
Current eligible businesses include supplier organizations that serve underrepresented groups like the National Minority Supplier Development Council, Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, National LGBT Chamber of Commerce, the National Veterans Business Development Council, Disability: IN, and the U.S. Pan American Chamber of Commerce.
The social media platform has also announced that it is looking to add more partner organizations to the program.
Applications for the program will open on Oct. 1. Click here for more information on how to get involved and apply.
