Uber Eats and Visa Small Business Celebrate Recipients of The 'Grants For Growth' Program

Many viewers are familiar with the Uber Eats 'Uber Don’t Eats' celebrity-rich campaign which debuted during the Super Bowl and which touted the service’s delivery of non-food items.  But what people may not know is that Uber Eats also boasts a robust small business BtoB offering.

Back in January, around the same time that Uber Eats debuted its 'Uber Don’t Eats' platform, the company launched its 'Grants for Growth' program in partnership with Visa and the Local Initiatives Support Corporation.  Focused on restaurant recovery and entrepreneurship, the program offered $10,000 grants to up to 100 small businesses affected by COVID, natural disasters or other unexpected grants.  The program was targeted to merchants in the 10 cities that are currently active on Uber Eats (such as Boston, Philadelphia or NYC), and with a weighted preference for Women-owned, veteran-owned or other diverse-owned enterprises.

The program was widely successful, with a total of $1million granted to 100 small businesses:  92% were entrepreneurs of colour, 69% were female-owned businesses, and 88% of the businesses were in low or moderate-income areas.

To draw further attention to this initiative, Uber Eats and Visa’s small business BtoB services have released a series of celebratory films, in the spirit of the season, highlighting five of the 'Grants for Growth' recipients. The work was created by Dallas-based TMA (The Marketing Arm) and was born out of witnessing and listening first-hand to the business owners’ authentic stories – from their early vision to their tireless work building a business and their resilience amidst the pandemic.  The five grant recipients featured include:

• Sofia Deleon, Owner, El Merkury in Philadelphia
• Umber Ahmad, Owner, Mah-Ze-Dahr Bakery in NYC
• Jamila Ross and Akino West, Owners, Rosie’s Miami
• Cheyenne Brown, Owner, Fun-Diggity Funnel Cakes in Los Angeles
• Spencer Ng, Owner, Triple Crown in the heart of Chicago’s Chinatown

The films are currently running on Uber Eats social media channels.

You can also view films spotlighting each of the individual grant winners by visiting the Uber Eats 'Grants for Growth' landing page