Black businesses get a boost from Motor City Match

Several black-owned businesses in Detroit will share in the $500,000 grant awarded through Motor City Match, the city’s small-business development incubator.

In its fifth cycle, six top-dollar prizes were given to area businesses looking to expand, hire more staff, renovate or make other necessary improvements. They include The N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art, which was awarded $80,000; The Wise Decision, a husband-and-wife health and fitness business, awarded $65,000; and Social, a future lounge and sushi bar opening in the Livernois-Six Mile corridor, awarded $45,000.

Motor City Match says it has helped 500 businesses since launching in 2015, 70% of which are minority-owned. A bevy of other businesses were also awarded business plan assistance, space-planning assistance and design assistance.

“These Detroiters are proving that our neighborhoods are great places to start a business,” Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan says in a news release.

Other awardees include Plum Health Direct Primary Care, which receives a $50,000 grant; The Kenilworth Club, a neighborhood bar serving African and New Orleans-inspired fare, which receives a $50,000 grant; and The Detroit Marshmallow Company, which receives a $10,000 grant.

The next round for Motor City Match grant applications opens December 1 and closes January 1, 2017. For more information, click here.