SAN FRANCISCO — DoorDash has launched new initiatives to support Black-owned restaurants on the DoorDash and Caviar platforms.
These new initiatives come as part of DoorDash’s commitment announced last month to support Black communities and Black-owned businesses, including donating $1 million, with $500,000 going to Black Lives Matter and $500,000 to create a fund to be directed toward state and local organizations by the Black@DoorDash Employee Resource Group (ERG).
Under the new initiatives, DoorDash will be matching loans for Black-owned businesses through a new partnership with Kiva — a global non-profit whose mission is to expand financial access to help underserved communities thrive. Through this partnership, DoorDash will help address this systemic inequity by providing capital as a capacity-building resource and will match loans to U.S.-based participating restaurants of DoorDash’s program to support Black-owned businesses that Kiva approves for a loan* by seeding a revolving loan fund starting at $150,000, with potential to grow the investment in the coming months.
All Kiva loans are crowdsourced and provided at a zero-per-cent interest rate and no fees. Merchant participants of DoorDash’s program to support Black-owned businesses will receive details on how to create a Kiva loan request this month.
DoorDash has also launched a new in-app feature on DoorDash and Caviar to highlight and support independent Black-owned businesses and Black entrepreneurs. Hundreds of Black-owned, independent restaurants across more than 30 states have opted into DoorDash’s program to support Black-owned businesses and are searchable on DoorDash by keyword “Black owned.” Each merchant highlighted as a Black-owned business has provided approval to be featured, either through direct contact with our team or by signing up through doordash.com/black-owned. Participating restaurants on the DoorDash platform are also identified by a banner on their store page.
Customers will also see Black-owned carousels on DoorDash in select U.S. markets to further encourage customers to support Black-owned businesses in their neighborhoods. This prime in-app placement on the DoorDash and Caviar platforms aims to further boost customer discovery and selection.
The company is also offering $0 delivery fees from all merchant partners participating in the program through the end of 2020. And, to reduce barriers to entry for Black-owned businesses, independent Black-owned restaurants in the United States and Canada can sign up for free with DoorDash and Caviar and pay zero commissions for 30 days. This offer will be available through the end of the year.
