Bank of America, in partnership with Seneca Women, has launched a new online marketplace for women entrepreneurs, providing them access to new markets and opportunities for consumers to shop and support their businesses. The Bank of America Marketplace by Seneca Women features a wide range of women-owned businesses, searchable by category and geography. It currently spotlights approximately 100 women from around the world including the U.S., Germany, India, and Mexico, with various sectors represented such as apparel, items, home goods, fitness, and beauty products. “The Marketplace allows us to leverage our resources, partnerships, and scale to create greater opportunities for women business owners to reach new markets for their products and services,” said Cynthia Bowman, chief diversity, inclusion, and corporate social responsibility officer at Bank of America. “At Bank of America, we know that when women thrive, whole families, whole communities, and whole economies thrive.”
“We at Seneca Women are thrilled to be partnering with Bank of America on a marketplace to showcase women-owned businesses,” said Sharon Bowen, partner, Seneca Women and chair of the New York Stock Exchange. “Women business owners have shown remarkable resilience and ingenuity during these challenging times, starting businesses at historic rates.
The Bank of America Marketplace by Seneca Women will enable us to support them by shop-ping from incredible women-owned businesses.”
Bank of America has leveraged key partners including the Tory Burch Foundation, Cherie Blair Foundation, the Bank of America Institute for Women’s Entrepreneurship at Cornell, and Vital Voices to help identify women who are taking part in the Marketplace.
“Access to markets is critically important to any business, whether mission-based or for-prof-it,” said Ariela Suster, CEO of Sequence Collection, an El Salvador-based social enterprise, whose products are available on the Marketplace. “At Sequence, increasing our visibility and market opportunities will help us fulfill our mission of disrupting the cycle of violence that limits at-risk youth, and provide employment and training opportunities for young men and women who live in gang and violence-ridden communities.”
INVESTING IN WOMEN
Bank of America is committed to investing in women through programs that support women entrepreneurs by providing access to training, mentorship, capital, markets, and philanthropic support, helping to empower women in communities around the globe. For example:
• Through the Tory Burch Foundation and Bank of America Capital Program, the bank has provided more than $95 million in affordable capital to over 5,000 U.S. women entrepreneurs to help grow their businesses.
• Through Bank of America’s partnership with Cornell University, 100,000 women will have the ability to pursue a business education through the only online Ivy League program offering a certificate in women’s entrepreneurship at no cost.
• Since its inception in 2011, the Global Ambassadors Program, a partnership between Bank of America and Vital Voices, has support-
ed more than 350 women from 85 countries— by helping women grow their businesses.
• The bank partners with the Cherie Blair Foundation in its Mentoring Women in Business program to connect women small businesses to mentoring expertise.
• In partnership with Seneca Women, the Bank of America Access to Capital Directory features hundreds of organizations providing funding for women-owned businesses across the US.
Seneca Women is a global leadership and media platform that works to advance women in the economy and around the world. Seneca Women has sought to accelerate women’s progress through signature events at Davos, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the New York Stock Exchange as well as through partnerships with organizations including Apple, Bank of America, Bloomberg, The Coca-Cola Company, Mastercard, and P&G, among others. The Seneca Women Podcast Network on iHeartMedia, launched with founding partner P&G, builds on the success of this work.
Learn more at bofamarketplace.senecawomen.com.
