Speaker 1: The total economic output of US Latinos was two point
Speaker 1: eight trillion dollars in Yet, despite being a key driving
Speaker 1: force of the US economy, experts say the capital isn't
Speaker 1: flowing towards the growth. According to the Latino Business Action Network,
Speaker 1: Hispanic downed businesses have grown forty four per cent in
Speaker 1: the last ten years, compared to just four percent for
Speaker 1: non Latinos, but less than two percent of the available
Speaker 1: venture capital funding in the US goes into this cohort.
Speaker 1: This is the best economy in the world, the free
Speaker 1: enterprise system, but it largely excludes small businesses and minority
Speaker 1: owned businesses even today. Rameiro Cavasos is the president and
Speaker 1: CEO of the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Then
Speaker 1: a big part of it. I think it's just relationships.
Speaker 1: It's networks, you know, I hate to say it. We're
Speaker 1: largely invisible. In order to make those connections, Anna Veldez,
Speaker 1: president and CEO of the Latino Donor Collaborative, says more
Speaker 1: vcs need to get out of their comfort zone. You
Speaker 1: need to start reaching out to places where you actually
Speaker 1: never reach. People that may not be as well versed,
Speaker 1: that may not come from your environment, that may not
Speaker 1: look like you, that may not talk like you, but
Speaker 1: that that are making a lot of money. Anthony Alcassar
Speaker 1: is finding himself in the middle of the struggle. His company, Mr.
Speaker 1: Tortilla is number one on Amazon. They've expanded their product
Speaker 1: line and just opened a second factory. My projections are
Speaker 1: thirty millions between twenty three sixty million for two hundred millions,
Speaker 1: and I can't get a fair shake, he says. The
Speaker 1: offers he has received include a majority stake in his business.
Speaker 1: We worked a whole ice for this, and so if
Speaker 1: I lose control ownership now, I can guarantee that they're
Speaker 1: going to polus in philosophies and run our business the
Speaker 1: way we want to run it. That's why Latino venture
Speaker 1: capitalists and banking and community lenders and seedy bias development
Speaker 1: finance institution, we got to get them to step up.
Speaker 1: Latitude Ventures is doing just that. The company recently launched
Speaker 1: a one million dollar fund focused on Latino founded early
Speaker 1: stage businesses. We're looking hard. We're creating the pipeline. We're
Speaker 1: creating the visibility so that any Latino and Latino that
Speaker 1: has been shut out that they can come here and
Speaker 1: they're going to get a fair look. Company president sold through.
Speaker 1: He has his own prediction. My bed is between now
Speaker 1: and the end of the decade, A trillion dollars a
Speaker 1: capital should be flowing here so that we can grow
Speaker 1: GDP at a highly competitive rate versus doing it the
Speaker 1: same way. Valdez puts that growth into perspective. If Latinos
Speaker 1: got the same proportion of credit as whites are given,
Speaker 1: it would translate into adding three point three trillion of
Speaker 1: revenue of companies in this country. But it's not only
Speaker 1: venture capital funding. L B a N reports the odds
Speaker 1: of loan approval from national banks are sixty percent lower
Speaker 1: for Latino owned businesses. Industry leaders say it comes down
Speaker 1: to diversification. It's a proportionate representation at a levels in
Speaker 1: the bank, from the board all the way to the
Speaker 1: C suite, all the way to the executive branch, and
Speaker 1: then to the branches. Actress, singer and entrepreneur Jennifer Lopez
Speaker 1: is looking to change the playing field people one. Lopez
Speaker 1: launched Limitless Labs to raise funds for Latina entrepreneurs, including
Speaker 1: a partnership with Goldman Sachs, and this past June, Lopez
Speaker 1: partnered with Gramina America to help distribute fourteen billion dollars
Speaker 1: in loans to six hundred thousand Latina business owners by
Speaker 1: the future of this economy will depend on small businesses
Speaker 1: and Latino owned businesses because of share demographics. According to
Speaker 1: the US Census Bureau, more than half of the total
Speaker 1: US population growth between came from Hispanics, and with Latino
Speaker 1: entrepreneurs starting small businesses faster than the rest of the
Speaker 1: start up population, the rising tide will lift all boats
Speaker 1: in New York. I'm Lisa Mateo, Bloomberg Radio