Atlanta is known as a hub of Fortune 500 companies. After all, 15 Fortune 500 companies call our city home, including iconic global brands like Coca-Cola, Delta Air Lines, and UPS.
Yet so much of the work we do at Invest Atlanta involves supporting the nearly 20,000 small businesses operating within our city. Ninety-five percent of all Atlanta businesses have 50 employees or less, and we’re proud to provide financial support, business assistance, and innovative new initiatives to help companies of all sizes thrive.
Through our small business loan programs, since 2001 we have closed 188 loans representing $11.6 million, which in turn has helped leverage $43.2 million in total investment. Businesses representing a wide variety of industries—businesses like The Spotted Trotter, The Good Hair Shop, NaanStop, Atlanta Movie Tours, and so many more—are thriving in neighborhoods thanks in part to the support they received from us in their early stages. And every day, our Business Retention and Expansion team is reaching out to businesses to provide them with critical services like site selection assistance and advocacy assistance.
For those at the very start of their journeys as entrepreneurs, we’ve offered support through Startup Atlanta and the Atlanta International Startup Exchange. The Students2Startups initiative, a joint effort we launched this year with WorkSource Atlanta, matches area college students with local startups. The program helps students gain invaluable startup experience through paid internships, while helping Atlanta startups find the talent they need from our world-class college and universities. (“It has been amazing,” Dannielle Boozer, the Director of Marketing at Rented, said about the program recently. “Working with the team has been great.”)
We believe these efforts—along with those being made under the leadership of Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, the City of Atlanta, the Women’s Entrepreneurship Initiative, and others—will further strengthen Atlanta’s reputation as a top-ranked city for entrepreneurs, especially for minority- and female-owned ventures.