Updated: Jul 14, 2022
Seattle, WA: NFT and Web3 Commerce Infrastructure company, Niftmint, has been awarded one of the fifty grants by Google for Startups Latino Founder Fund.
The Niftmint team is incredibly honored to share that we have been selected as a recipient of a $100,000 non-dilutive grant from Google for Startups Latino Founder Fund.
Niftmint's Founder and CEO, Jonathan G. Blanco, is a first-generation American whose parents immigrated from Venezuela in the early 1980s. As the only person in his family born in the United States, Jonathan has used what he views as a blessing as his motivation to go after solving really big problems and achieving large outcomes in entrepreneurship, rather than work for a large company or have a 9-5 job.
Niftmint is an NFT Commerce Infrastructure company that provides APIs to Brands, Agencies, and Organizations so they can mint, sell, and custody NFTs directly on their eCommerce platform and CMS. Niftmint handles all the cryptocurrency and crypto wallets on behalf of Brands and their customers, treating NFTs simply as Digital Inventory.
During his conversation with Nikita Prasad from Google for Startups Jonathan says, "I never thought, and when I say never thought, it never occurred into my brain, that I would be able to be a technology founder." Jonathan believes it's important for there to be Latino representation if only for the sole reason that Latino youth can see themselves in those positions and opportunities. Through his journey, the good days and the bad days in entrepreneurship, Jonathan hopes he can be an example for young Latinos and Latinas who want to get involved with technology and start their own startup one day. Watch the video below of when Jonathan is first notified by Nikita Prasad that he and Niftmint had been accepted into the Latino Founder Fund.
"Latino-led businesses are the fastest-growing segment of U.S. small businesses, but as an aggregate they only receive 2% of total U.S. venture capital funding, despite comprising 20% of the U.S. population." As a result, Google committed $7 million last year to go towards Latino founders.
At Niftmint we are incredibly grateful to Google for Startups for their funding and their commitment to the Latino community as well as other underrepresented groups in the Startup ecosystem. Where many large organizations, companies, and institutions have been performative in their support of underserved founders, Google has shown up and put its money where it counts, for which we are forever thankful!
If you'd like to learn more about Niftmint, collaborate, or see how NFTs can be added to your business, please visit Niftmint.com and select Contact Us.
Meet the 50 Founders in the Latino Founder Fund and see why Google for Startups is focused on funding Latino Founders (read more)
FAQs (From Google for Startups)
Why is Google for Startups doing this?
We believe that funding Latino founders empowers entire communities. Access to capital, training, and support leads to greater economic opportunity and racial equity. Google is uniquely positioned to provide capital and support to help founders grow their businesses, and in turn, create space for founders to succeed and create greater impact for their community. The goal of this fund is to increase economic opportunity for promising Latino startup founders in the US. Capital is essential to run and grow a startup, and is disproportionately difficult to access for Latino founders. We hope this funding and support can catalyze the growth of Latino-led startups, foster innovative solutions to tough problems, and ultimately generate wealth for their communities.
What does a recipient from the Latino Founders Fund receive?
The Google for Startups Latino Founders Fund is a $5M fund that provides promising Latino-led startups non-equity cash awards to help fuel their businesses. Across the country, 50 founders will receive $100K in cash to help grow their business. They’ll also receive hands-on support from Google employees across the company, $100K in Google Cloud credits, and access to mental health therapists at no cost.
What can I call this award?
You can refer to this as funding, a cash award, cash, non-dilutive funding. This award consists of non-dilutive funding and hands-on support from Google for Startups.
Please do not call this award a "grant," a term that is mostly reserved for non-profits and carries some legal ramifications.
How did we determine eligibility for an award?
Recipients of the awards can be nominated by partners in the Google for Startups network or past recipients and/or have participated in programming from Google for Startups (e.g. Atlanta Founders Academy, Black Founders Exchange, Google Demo Day, Google for Startups Accelerator).
What was the selection criteria?
Selection was based on the strength of the founder’s application, startup size, readiness for funding, demonstrated traction, reach and impact, whether Google could uniquely support them aside from the capital, and the business must have raised less than $3M in funding in total. We also take into consideration demonstrated need for funding as some recipients may be put in more difficult fundraising positions than others because of the pandemic.
