New York is Funding Seed Grants and Lendistry is Powering It

“The pandemic has had profound impacts on our economy and our small and micro businesses were among the hardest hit, especially in New York State,” said Hope Knight, Empire State Development President, CEO and Commissioner. “Supporting our State’s small businesses has been a priority of Governor Hochul’s administration and the steps taken to expand eligibility and get funding out the door has helped countless businesses stay on track.”

Empire State Development created the NY State Seed Funding Grant program to help rebuild the small business community and they chose Lendistry to administer this program and distribute grants to businesses that qualify. As for how they picked Lendistry, it probably helped that they had their foot in the door as they previously won an RFP from the State to roll out the Covid-19 small business recovery grant.

“…based on the relationship related to that program and working together, when an opportunity came for the New York Seed program, naturally, Lendistry raised our hands,” said Everett K. Sands, CEO at Lendistry.

Lendistry is the only lending company working on this project with ESD and the portal to apply for a grant is already open. When the pandemic started, more than 2,800 businesses permanently closed in New York City within the first five months alone. With this grant, Hope Knight believes that this will move the economy in a stronger direction going forward.

Everett K. Sands, CEO, Lendistry

“The $800 million Pandemic Small Business Recovery Grant Program and now the new Seed Funding Grant Program marks unprecedented support for New York State’s small businesses and for our economic success moving forward,” said Knight.

With numerous social media ad campaigns and marketing exercises taking place over the next couple weeks, ESD wants to allow every small business a chance to take advantage of this opportunity. The grant can be found under nyseedgrant.com where a list of eligibility requirements is listed as well as an application guide that can be downloaded in various languages. After some initial forms, businesses are then instructed to upload documentation, and if approved they get a grantee agreement to be signed.

“The grant amounts are going to depend on revenue and what we call that revenue we also call gross receipts. And so, depending on their gross receipts, they can receive up to 10% of their gross receipts or about $25,000 or less,” said Sands.

Given that some people improperly applied for the PPP and EIDL programs, Lendistry is monitoring who is eligible for these grants so a repeat of that does not happen.

“I think fraud has to do with a couple of things, has to do with how you handle your Know-Your-Customer, which is also called KYC and Know-Your-Business, KYB process,” said Sands. “Lendistry is pretty robust in terms of how we handle those two processes in terms of kind of who we let in the front door. Naturally, the fraudster would also have to provide the documentation that’s required of the program, and then Lendistry also has technology that kind of cross reviews those who were I’ll just say ‘bad’ in a previous program.”