Business
How 'Missing Middle' Small Businesses Find Financing Through Wells Fargo's Open for Business Growth
NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESS Newswire / September 19, 2025 / Wells Fargo & Company Growth-ready small businesses are accessing the flexible financing they need thanks to $20 million in grants from Wells Fargo & Company to nonprofits in their communities. ...
About this update from Wells Fargo & Company
[{"type":"text","content":"NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESS Newswire / September 19, 2025 / Wells Fargo & Company","length":82,"tagName":"p"},{"type":"text","content":"Growth-ready small businesses are accessing the flexible financing they need thanks to $20 million in grants from Wells Fargo & Company to nonprofits in their communities.","length":175,"tagName":"p"},{"type":"text","content":"By Eric Best","length":12,"tagName":"p"},{"type":"text","content":"There's a precarious point in the life of many small businesses when they must grow or risk failure. For founders facing this position, a loan is a solution, but it may come with terms that bind their business.","length":214,"tagName":"p"},{"type":"text","content":"That's why a new kind of loan was the fix for Onigiri Kororin, the rice balls startup Yuta Katsuyama started as a school project that has brought the grab-and-go Japanese street food to dozens of Chicago neighborhoods, likely for the first time.","length":249,"tagName":"p"},{"type":"text","content":""The more you grow the business, the more money you need," said Katsuyama, the cofounder and CEO of Onigiri Kororin. "It's really difficult to balance the speed of your growth and take care of the cash flow at the same time."","length":249,"tagName":"p"},{"type":"text","content":"Last year, that infusion of about $210,000 was made possible through a Wells Fargo corporate grant to Allies for Community Business, a Chicago nonprofit that created financing with unique repayment terms fixed to a company's revenue. It allowed Katsuyama to keep much-needed cash while he moved to a new production space and boost production.","length":346,"tagName":"p"},{"type":"text","content":"This grant was among the first of a $20 million Open for Business Growth program designed for growth-ready small businesses that are on the "brink of expansion," said Kimelyn Harris, head of small business growth philanthropy at Wells Fargo.","length":251,"tagName":"p"},{"type":"text","content":"The program is primed to make a big impact locally by working with nonprofit lenders and investors to target businesses in their community with a proven track record of growth.","length":176,"tagName":"p"},{"type":"text","content":""This focus on growth-ready small businesses will drive job creation and help local economic development. Wit...