Funding woes inspire $25K pitching competition for Black entrepreneurs

Jackee Kasandy, founder of the non-profit Black Entrepreneurs and Businesses of Canada Society, is holding a contest with a $25,000 prize for Black entrepreneurs with big ideas and small bank balances.

After immigrating to Canada from Kenya with dreams of starting her own business, entrepreneur Jackee Kasandy soon concluded that Canadian banks weren't keen on opening their vaults to folks like her.

Kasandy, founder of the non-profit Black Entrepreneurs and Businesses of Canada Society, said she faced many roadblocks from Canadian lending institutions as she sought funding.

Now, Kasandy wants other Black entrepreneurs to have a leg up when starting out, holding a contest with a $25,000 prize for Black entrepreneurs with big ideas and small bank balances.

Rather than requiring entrants to have full business plans with their pitches, the society's Black Pitch Contest calls on people who self-identify as Black to submit a short video outlining their ideas.

After receiving nearly 150 entries, the society whittled the field down to five finalists, two of them based in British Columbia.

Before founding the society, Kasandy said she had many strikes against her in the eyes of banks, as an immigrant who didn't own a home.

Without collateral to get a loan, she scraped and saved to eventually open her store on Vancouver's Granville Island, selling fair-trade, handmade products by artists from her native Kenya.