Inclusive entrepreneurship loan

BDC’s inclusive entrepreneurship loan is designed for businesses owned by women, Indigenous people, and Black people.

The identified groups are defined as below:

• Women: Individuals who live and identify as female.
• Indigenous people: People who are members of a North American Indian group or a First Nation, or who are Métis or Inuit. The terms "North American Indian" and "First Nation" refer to status, non-status and treaty Indians.
• Black people: Those who live and identify as Black.

Research indicates that women entrepreneurs, Black and Indigenous communities face barriers when starting and growing businesses. As we pilot our initial program, we identified groups of entrepreneurs that have been our focus and that we are well-prepared to assist at this stage of our inclusive entrepreneurship journey. While these communities aren’t the only historically underserved groups, we’re committed to greater inclusion. We look forward to learning from this temporary program and expanding offerings for other underrepresented entrepreneurs in the future. 

We generally recommend that a client or prospect who has recently been refused a loan wait at least six months before applying for financing again. If you feel that your situation has changed, you could talk to your BDC representative to get his or her advice about whether or not you could qualify for the initiative.

This program is offered by BDC Academy. It is comprised of four mandatory modules covering the topics of financial statements, profitability, cash flow and credit score essentials, and optional modules covering sales and marketing and networking.

How long is the program?

It takes 80 minutes on average to complete the mandatory modules. A final quiz will have to be successfully completed at the end to get the pre-authorized interest rate variance reduction on your loan.

The envelope will be available on a first come, first served basis, and the initiative will close on December 31, 2025, or sooner if the allocated envelope has been fully used.