Google announces a new $15 million commitment to economic opportunities for the Latino community and startups

Although the tech giant is known mostly for its search engine, what rarely gets attention is the company’s efforts and initiatives to help support and lift up the underserved communities, especially the Black and Latino communities.

As you may recall, back in July, Google for Startups announced the launch of a second $5 million Black Founders Fund to give $100,000 in non-dilutive funding to 50 Black founders from Google for Startups’ U.S. programs and partner communities. Now, Google has just announced a similar program to support the Latino community.

Today, Google announces a new $15 million commitment to economic opportunities for the Latino community in the U.S. This is not just another commitment. This is cash in hand for startup founders with no strings attached, training for students in college to help them be competitive for internships or their first job, and critical skills for job seekers in their community.

In a blog post, Google said: “Today, we are deepening our commitment to racial justice with a $15 million expansion focused on economic equity for Latinos in the U.S. Our goal is to help Latino entrepreneurs, job seekers, and students have equitable access to funding, training and the support they need to succeed in today’s economy.”

Google for Startups Latino Founders Fund

That’s not all. Google is also making a $7 million commitment to the Latino startup community to help founders get access to capital needed to scale, and support organizations working to grow a robust community of Latino founders.

According to the announcement, The Latino Founders Fund will give top founders cash awards up to $100,000 in non-dilutive funding: critical capital that helps founders retain ownership of their company and avoid debt.

While the capital is important, the fund includes much more than a check. Recipients from the Latino Founders Fund will receive hands-on programming and support from Google, deep mentorship from technical and business experts, as well as a vibrant community of fellow founders. This support will include $1 million in donated ads from Google.org, helping the founders raise brand awareness and reach new customers.

In addition to investments into Latino-led startups, Google said it will allocate $1 million of the fund to support programs and community-building organizations in the Latino startup ecosystem. “We will expand our support of the Google for Startups partner network, and will also seek out new Latino-focused organizations committed to this effort. For example, we’ll be providing scholarships for Latino founders to participate in Founder Gym, a long-time Google for Startups partner who runs a 6-week program training founders to raise funding for their startups,” Google wrote.

Supporting Latino students and job seekers

Helping Latino students develop the digital skills they need to find and secure internships and jobs that will help them build successful careers is critical to closing the wealth gap. According to the National Skills Coalition, Latino workers are 14 percent of all workers but account for 35% of those with no digital skills, and 20 percent of those with limited skills.

Google also announced that is expanding the Grow with Google Career Readiness Program in partnership with the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) to reach Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs).

The tech giant pledges to provide a $2 million investment for college career services centers across the US to help train 200,000 Latino college students by 2025 in digital skills. “Our hope is this program will open the doors to opportunities that didn’t exist before for Latino students by providing tools and resources to help them on their journey to an internship or job out of college, which can have a profound impact on their lifetime earning power,” Google said.