Cultivate Small Business

We work hard to ensure we are providing tools and solutions to our customers to enable them to achieve their financial goals.

Santander’s Cultivate Small Business helps early-stage entrepreneurs build and sustain businesses in the food industry, with a focus on woman-, immigrant-, and BIPOC-owned businesses in low-to-moderate income neighborhoods.  The program is completely free for eligible entrepreneurs and provides a 12 week food-focused curriculum, mentorship, and capital grants.

The program, fully funded by Santander, began in 2017 with an inaugural group of 30 entrepreneurs from the Greater Boston area.  We have offered the program each year since and are now supporting 180 entrepreneurs annually in six major markets: Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Philadelphia, Dallas and Miami.

The program takes place “live” via Zoom and runs two cohorts each year, targeting businesses that:

• are woman-, immigrant-, or BIPOC-owned businesses in the food industry
• have been in operation for at least one year at the time of application
• have revenues between $25,000 and $1,000,000 in the last calendar year

Apply

Our Fall cohort supports businesses in Philadelphia, Dallas, and Miami with classes running September through November. Applications are accepted from March through June.

Our Spring cohort supports businesses in New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island with classes running from March through June. Applications are accepted from November through January.

Please reach out to CultivateSmallBusiness@Santander.us with any questions about program eligibility or application deadlines.

Partners

Santander is proud to work with our dedicated program partners: Initiative for A Competitive Inner City (ICIC), CommonWealth Kitchen (CWK) and Babson College.