August 12, 2025
10 min read
How ‘missing middle’ small businesses find financing through Open for Business Growth
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.
Key takeaways
- Making loans easier to access: The $20 million Open for Business Growth initiative helps growing small businesses by making grants to local nonprofits that can then offer them innovative capital.
- A gap in business financing: Many of these businesses require more capital than micro-loans but may not qualify for traditional financing. The program targets this gap.
- Amplifying local impact: These grants amplify the impact nonprofits have in their communities and help them create new loan programs and other financial products tailored to the local small businesses they serve.
- Smarter small business philanthropy: Open for Business Growth builds on the impact of the Open for Business Fund, Wells Fargo’s $420 million program that boosted the small business community by working with community organizations.
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.
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.
“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.”
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.
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.
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.
“This focus on growth-ready small businesses will drive job creation and help local economic development. Without this support, these businesses may remain stagnant,” Harris said. “In some cases, they may fail before they reach their full potential.”
[Video overview: Saul Van Beurden, CEO, Consumer, Small & Business Banking, Wells Fargo; Kimelyn Harris, Head of Small Business Growth Philanthropy, Wells Fargo; Brad McConnell, CEO, Allies for Community Business; Lashon Burrell, Founder and Executive Chef, Cajun Café Chicago; and Yuta Katsuyama, Co-founder and CEO, Kororin US Inc., discuss how Wells Fargo’s Open for Business Growth grants are helping nonprofits fill a critical capital gap, helping local businesses grow.]
[music]
[cheering]
[Saul Van Beurden, CEO, Consumer, Small & Business Banking, Wells Fargo]
There’s no bigger honor than announcing that we are opening a new Open for Business Growth fund. It is for all growth-ready small business companies that are too big for a microloan and too small for traditional financing.
[Kimelyn Harris, Head of Small Business Growth Philanthropy, Wells Fargo]
It’s really going to help close that gap. And so I’m really excited that we have one of our partners here with us today, Allies for Community Business. They’re going to receive a $2.5 million grant.
[Brad McConnell, CEO, Allies for Community Business]
And so, what we’re going to be doing with the dollars that Wells Fargo is provided to us, we’re providing really flexible capital for entrepreneurs who have a path to growth, but need the financing to get there.
[Lashon Burrell, Founder and Executive Chef, Cajun Café Chicago]
Something that has been challenging, though, honestly, is the capital, which is why I got the revenue-based loan from Allies, with Wells Fargo. That was something that I needed in order to have cash flow. So, when I take on larger events, I’m able to have the money to float those things.
[McConnell]
Allies for Community Business is working with those entrepreneurs to provide revenue-based financing, which means that the payment fluctuates with the revenues.
And therefore, you have a great month. Wonderful. You pay more back on your debt because you have the cash to do it. If you have a less profitable month, a less successful sales month, that’s okay. You end up paying us less that month.
[Harris]
A lot of the businesses that are in the middle, our businesses like construction owners, retail space, restaurants, and a lot of times they need flexible capital because there’s a lot of upfront cost.
[Yuta Katsuyama, Co-founder and CEO, Kororin US Inc.]
Revenue-based funding through their support, that helped us to move into this new space. We also get advice from their team on how to finance the business. They gave us the opportunity to pitch our business to a potential investors.
[Burrell]
Allies has been really, really helpful in regards to making sure that the numbers make sense. We sit down and we have conversations about, ‘Is this contract going to make sense for you? Is it going to be profitable?’
[McConnell]
This is for growth. And so, the entrepreneurs who’ve made it through, they’re now in a position where the rates accelerate their growth, create more jobs, more wealth in their communities. The financing we’ve now received from Wells Fargo, is going to help Allies for Community Business to invest in those entrepreneurs.
[Burrell]
My why is just being able to make people happy, you know, being able to know that I started this from scratch, and I’m living my dream every day.
[music]
[On-screen text]
© 2025 Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. All rights reserved.
Watch how Wells Fargo’s Open for Business Growth grants are helping nonprofits fill a critical capital gap, helping local businesses grow (2:30).
Credit: Dustin Wilson
Grants for small business communities
Lashon Burrell had a dream of having her own kitchen to cook up the Southern classics like shrimp and grits and crab cakes she learned in her grandparent’s East St. Louis home. Now, as the chef behind her catering company Cajun Café Chicago, she’s achieved that at The Hatchery, the same Chicago food and beverage startup incubator that helped launch Onigiri Kororin.
“Every day I get a chance to meet somebody new. Every day I get a chance to make somebody happy. Every day I get a chance to make sure people have great food that not only tastes good but looks good,” she said.
Burrell has turned to Allies for Community Business (A4CB) several times to support her small business journey. She graduated from A4CB’s Neighborhood Entrepreneurship Lab accelerator and received her first loan through A4CB, a community organization that benefited from Wells Fargo’s original Open for Business Fund. Most recently, Cajun Café Chicago was able to borrow $200,000 through A4CB’s revenue-based financing, which was supported by the Open for Business Growth program.
“So, when I take on larger events, I’m able to have the money to float those things, or to get the equipment or team that’s needed,” Burrell said.
Open for Business Growth works by giving grants to nonprofit organizations like Allies for Community Business. These organizations expand access to financial services and products in the communities they serve.
These grants allow organizations to invest in their relationships with local businesses by giving them advanced financial guidance through advisory services. This can be crucial for growing businesses navigating taxes, laws, and regulations, Harris said. As an example, Burrell turned to A4CB to break down the pros and cons of contracts.
“[Nonprofits] have their finger on the pulse of what’s happening in a local community. They know what businesses could benefit the most from new products, and we see a role for Wells Fargo to play in using philanthropy as a catalyst to seed innovation” Harris said.
Making new kinds of financing for small businesses
The goal of this initiative is not only to support small business expansion but also to accelerate innovation in financing solutions, specifically targeting the “missing middle,” where small businesses are too large for microloans yet too small to qualify for traditional financing.
“We’re making grants to nonprofit lenders and community organizations to create greater access to capital and free up capacity so they can do more,” she said. “The goal is [for them to be able to] test and learn with little to no risk, which benefits growth-ready small businesses searching for solutions.”
“I’m so grateful for these nontraditional options. When you start a business, you don’t have that many options, but you need money to grow the business.” — Yuta Katsuyama, cofounder and CEO of Onigiri Kororin”
One example of this innovation is the loan with revenue-based repayment offered by A4CB, which provides a flexible payback plan that ebbs and flows with the business and its needs. In other industries and markets, the Open for Business Growth program will lead to other types of capital and coaching.
“I’m so grateful for these nontraditional options. When you start a business, you don’t have that many options, but you need money to grow the business,” Katsuyama said. “It’s been amazing for us.”
