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Valdé Beauty Wants To Help the Community and Launches the First Annual Latinx Beauty Entrepreneur Grant

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Image courtesy of Valdé Beauty.

At BELatina, we have been tirelessly pointing out for at least two years that the biggest obstacle for Latinx entrepreneurs is funding. We are more than 50 million people in the United States, and our strength is unstoppable.

Yet, according to a report by the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Small Business Promotion, in 2018, about 600,000 of the 12.2 million business owners in the U.S. were native-born Latinx. The office also found that the two most important factors limiting business ownership among U.S.-born Latinx are their relatively young age and lack of wealth.

And when it comes to the beauty industry, our presence and representation are more important than ever.

As Popsugar explained, Latinx spend more on beauty and personal care products than anyone else in this country. In 2020, Latinx spent 13 percent more than the average shopper on beauty and personal care products. What’s more, when Latinx don’t get the products they need, they don’t hesitate to start their own businesses.

But the obstacle remains the same: financing.

According to Crunchbase data cited by Popsugar, Latinx entrepreneurs received only 2.1% of venture capital funding in 2021.

Enter Valdé Beauty

To solve this problem, beauty expert, former Sephora CMO, and founder of Valdé Beauty, Margarita Arriagada, decided to launch the first annual Latinx Beauty Entrepreneur Grant.

It is a grant that will help fund the next Latina-owned beauty business and serve as a spin-off competition from the Valdé NFT Collective. Beauty entrepreneurs must submit an application, which involves presenting their brand based on the company’s mission, product offerings, an overall business plan, and how they plan to impact their communities.

As the scholarship website explains, Arriagada and her team will select three Latinx entrepreneurs  who will have the opportunity to present their brands before a panel of beauty industry experts and judges that include Live Tinted founder and CEO Deepica Mutyala, Nyakio Beauty founder and CEO, and Thirteen Lune co-founder Nyakio Grieco, Beautyblender creator and CEO Rea Ann Silva, and #WeAllGrow Latina founder and CEO Ana Flores.

“Valdé launched at the end of 2020, earmarking proceeds to support BIPOC beauty entrepreneurs to improve representation. In this past year, as I grew my brand, I received so much support from the Latinx community,” Arriagada told Popsugar. “Not just for Valdé but for me as a founder, with encouragement to keep going and stay the course. It was natural to assign our first grant initiative to this community.”

The winner will receive a $10,000 cash grant and free consulting services worth $200,000 from sponsors including Pamela Rosario Law, The Bonita Project, School House, The Dream Lab, and Beauty Barrage. They will be allowed to present their proposal to beauty retailers, including Thirteen Lune, Ulta Beauty, and Sephora, and receive a ticket to the three-day #WeAllGrow Summit in Palm Springs.

The application process will be open until May 23, and you can find all the information here.

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