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Posted on January 10, 2013
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Goldman Sachs to Expand '10,000 Small Businesses' Program to Philadelphia
Goldman Sachs to Expand '10,000 Small Businesses' Program to Philadelphia
Goldman Sachs has announced that it is expanding its 10,000 Small Businesses program to Philadelphia.
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the investment bank has committed $20 million to launch the program in Philadelphia, including grants of $10 million to the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp (PIDC) to support loans to small businesses; $5 million to the Community College of Philadelphia to provide free business education to founders of small companies; and $5 million to the Lancaster-based Community First Fund to provide loans to small businesses in the thirteen-county region served by the fund.
Philadelphia will be the eleventh city selected to participate in the program, joining Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, Long Beach, New Orleans, and Salt Lake City, among others. Goldman Sachs reports that to date more than one thousand businesses have received loans or completed the business education portion of the $500 million initiative since it was launched in 2009.
"Having Goldman Sachs, which is a market maker, decide [that Philadelphia] is a market where it wants to make investments is a big deal," said Mark Pinsky, president of the Philadelphia-based Opportunity Finance Network.
Echoing that sentiment, John Grady, president of PIDC, said, "It reinforces a message important to [Mayor Nutter] that Philadelphia is a great place to start a business and grow a business."
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