Hispanic and Latino Business Grants Open Right Now — August 2026
Three grants in the GrantCompass catalog are written specifically for Hispanic, Latino or Latina business owners, and none of the three is accepting applications on August 24, 2026. Two are PepsiCo’s Juntos Crecemos programs, both between intakes. The third, digitalundivided’s BREAKTHROUGH grant for Black and Latina women founders, ran its Northern California and Nashville cohort through the summer and has posted no next window. Widen the frame and the catalog holds 11 programs a Latino owner can use: 5 take applications today, and exactly 1 of those 5 is a grant — the Camelback Ventures Fellowship, $50,000, closing September 18, 2026. The other four open doors are two microlenders, a CDFI built for Latino borrowers, and a free New York food incubator.
See every program you qualify for — free →
Dated and worth knowing: the SBA’s 8(a) program loses its rebuttable presumption of social disadvantage for individually owned firms on September 10, 2026 — 17 days from this page’s data date. Hispanic Americans were one of the designated groups that presumption covered. What changes, and what does not, is set out below.
Data date August 24, 2026. Every status, deadline, amount and rule citation featured in the prose, capsules and verdict below was checked against the administering body’s own page or the Federal Register on August 24, 2026; table rows otherwise carry GrantCompass catalog values, and the methodology names the two places where the catalog and the source disagree. Recomputed monthly, so the address is stable even when every number on it changes.
What a Hispanic or Latino-owned business can apply to on August 24, 2026
All 11 programs are printed below with the status GrantCompass verified on August 24, 2026, in three tiers by how directly each one is aimed at Latino owners. The checker above the table filters on the things that actually disqualify people in this slice, which are not geography and not ethnicity: they are sector gates and revenue floors. Two programs only fund food and beverage businesses. One only funds founders past $50,000 in annual revenue. One only funds education and conscious-technology ventures. Program names link to the GrantCompass record for that program, where the full eligibility detail lives.
- Tier 1 — the program’s own rules name Hispanic, Latino, Latina or Jefa owners: 4 programs, of which 3 are grants and none of those 3 is open.
- Tier 2 — Latino founders are one named priority among several: 4 programs, 1 open.
- Tier 3 — reachable capital and free programs, aimed at nobody in particular: 3 programs, all 3 open.
Showing 11 of 11 verified programs
Choosing a revenue stage removes the programs whose published rules put a floor above it. Choosing a sector removes the two food-and-beverage-only programs and the education-and-technology fellowship when they do not apply to you.
| Program | What it pays | Status & next date | Who it is written for | Intel |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PepsiCo Juntos Crecemos Jefa-Owned Business GrantGrant · National | $10,000 (20 winners) | Between Between intakes — the last intake we can document ran August 20 to September 27, 2024 | Latina-owned (“Jefa-owned”) food and beverage businesses | 6/7 locked |
| PepsiCo Greenhouse Accelerator — Juntos Crecemos EditionGrant · National | $20,000 + a $100,000 grand prize | Between Between intakes — the last documented cohort was selected in 2024 | Hispanic-owned food and beverage brands with a product already selling | 6/7 locked |
| digitalundivided BREAKTHROUGH — Grant for Black & Latina Women FoundersGrant · CA/TN | $5,000 per company | Cycle over Cycle over — the Northern California and Nashville cohort ran its sessions July 27 to August 14, 2026; no next window posted | Black and Latina women founders past $50,000 in annual revenue | 6/7 locked |
| LEDC — Small Business Loans for Latino and Underserved DMV EntrepreneursLoan · DC/MD/VA | $500–$250,000 | Open Open — applications accepted year-round through LEDC’s online form | Latino and immigrant owners in DC, Maryland and Virginia, including pre-launch | 6/7 locked |
| Camelback Ventures FellowshipGrant · National | $50,000 in capital | Open Open — Cohort 18 applications close September 18, 2026 | Early-stage founders in education and conscious technology; historically underrepresented founders | 7/7 locked |
| Black Ambition PrizeGrant · National | Up to $1,000,000 across a cohort | Ended No 2026 Prize Competition — the organisation says so on its own application page | Black and Hispanic early-stage founders, with a separate HBCU track | 6/7 locked |
| LISC Small Business Relief GrantsGrant · National | $5,000–$25,000 (when open) | Between Between waves — campaigns open on no fixed calendar and some fill inside 72 hours | Latino, Black and women owners in low-income communities | 7/7 locked |
| Fearless Fund Strivers GrantGrant · National | $20,000 (terminated) | Ended Ended permanently under a September 2024 legal settlement | Women of colour, Latina founders included (program terminated) | 7/7 locked |
| Kiva U.S. — 0% Interest Microloans for Small BusinessLoan · National | $1,000–$15,000 at 0% interest | Open Open — rolling, then a 15-day crowdfunding window once Kiva approves you | Any US owner, including pre-launch; no credit check and no fee | 7/7 locked |
| Accion Opportunity Fund — Small Business LoansLoan · 44 states | $5,000–$250,000 | Open Open — rolling, year-round, no cycle deadlines | Owners with roughly three months of business bank deposits; no credit-score minimum | 7/7 locked |
| Hot Bread Kitchen — HBK Incubates Food Business ProgramProgram · NY | In-kind (free program) | Open Open — rolling admissions, no cost | New York City food entrepreneurs, with a stated focus on immigrant and women founders | 6/7 locked |
Check which of these 11 your business clears before you write anything. A short eligibility check ranks every US program against your state, sector, revenue stage and ownership — and watches the deadline on anything you star, at no cost. No card, no call.
See your matches — free →The three grants written for Hispanic and Latino owners, and where each stands
The dedicated Hispanic and Latino grant market in the GrantCompass catalog is three programs deep, and two of the three belong to the same sponsor. PepsiCo runs both the Juntos Crecemos Jefa-Owned Business Grant, which awards $10,000 to twenty Latina-owned food and beverage businesses, and the Juntos Crecemos edition of its Greenhouse Accelerator, which puts a small cohort through five months of mentorship with a $100,000 grand prize at the end. The third, digitalundivided’s BREAKTHROUGH grant, awards $5,000 to Black and Latina women founders and runs city by city rather than nationally. All three are cyclical, none has an open published deadline today, and a single corporate funder therefore controls two-thirds of the dedicated grant capacity in this slice.
PepsiCo Juntos Crecemos Jefa-Owned Business Grant
$10,000 to each of 20 winners, plus an accelerator and digital coaching for every recipient. Latina-owned food and beverage businesses only. Our catalog rates it 8 out of 10 for ease and about two hours of work, which is unusually light for a five-figure award.
PepsiCo Greenhouse Accelerator — Juntos Crecemos Edition
$20,000 per selected company plus a $100,000 grand prize. Hispanic-owned food and beverage brands with product already selling. Competition rated 5 out of 5, roughly six hours of work, and a real non-compete constraint covered in the caution below.
digitalundivided BREAKTHROUGH
$5,000 per company, no equity taken, alongside curriculum and mentorship. Black and Latina women founders past $50,000 in annual revenue. digitalundivided ran a Northern California cohort and a Nashville cohort this summer, with sessions between July 27 and August 14, 2026, and its BREAKTHROUGH page posts no deadline for a next one.
Is the PepsiCo Juntos Crecemos Jefa-Owned grant open?
No. The PepsiCo Juntos Crecemos Jefa-Owned Business Grant is between intakes on August 24, 2026, and the most recent intake GrantCompass can document ran from August 20 to September 27, 2024, with recipients announced that November. The award structure is stable and well evidenced: twenty grants of $10,000 each to women-owned food and beverage businesses, delivered through Hello Alice, with an accelerator and digital coaching included for every recipient. What we cannot evidence is a 2025 or 2026 cycle. No dates have been published, and the application host returned a rate-limit error rather than a live form when we checked it today, so this page reports the program as between intakes rather than guessing at a reopening.
The timing detail matters because the 2024 window opened in the third week of August. A founder reading a two-year-old listicle in late August 2026 will conclude the window is open right now, and that is the specific error this page exists to prevent. If PepsiCo runs the program again on its historic calendar, the moment to check is the last ten days of August; if it does not, the next best food-and-beverage route in this slice is the Hot Bread Kitchen incubator for New York businesses, which costs nothing and never closes.
Both Juntos Crecemos programs share a constraint worth knowing before you invest a weekend in either. PepsiCo does not fund brands that compete with its own portfolio, which is broad enough to matter — a beverage, a savoury snack, an oat or grain product, a sports drink or a juice will usually collide with Gatorade, Tropicana, Lay’s, Quaker or Pepsi. Read the eligibility rules for the non-compete clause before the narrative, not after.
SBA 8(a) and the September 10, 2026 presumption change: what it means for Latino owners
On September 10, 2026 the SBA removes the rebuttable presumption of social disadvantage from the 8(a) Business Development Program for firms owned by individuals. The final rule was published at 91 Federal Register 51568 on August 11, 2026 and amends 13 CFR 124.103. Until that date, an individual applicant who is a member of a designated group — Hispanic Americans among them — is presumed socially disadvantaged. After it, an individually owned applicant must establish social disadvantage on the record, with a personal narrative of specific, chronic and substantial experiences rather than group membership. Entity-owned firms — those owned by tribes, Alaska Native Corporations, Native Hawaiian Organizations and Community Development Corporations — are explicitly outside the change.
For a Latino owner the practical reading is a deadline, not a door closing. 8(a) remains open to Hispanic-American owners; what changes is the evidence burden on an individually owned application filed on or after September 10, 2026. Applications turn on documentation, so the difference between filing in the first week of September and the third is the difference between attaching a group-membership attestation and drafting a narrative that survives review. Nothing in the rule touches the economic tests — the $850,000 personal net worth threshold, the $400,000 adjusted gross income test, the $6.5 million total assets ceiling — or the nine-year, once-in-a-lifetime program term.
This is the second presumption to fall in a year, which is why it is worth naming rather than treating as a one-off. The Department of Transportation removed race- and sex-based presumptions from the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program at 49 CFR Parts 23 and 26 through an interim final rule effective October 3, 2025, and GrantCompass rewrote its own DBE guidance on August 24, 2026 after finding the old page legally obsolete. The mechanics of applying to 8(a), the certification comparison table and the worked eligibility tests live on the 8(a) programs page and the MBE certification guide; the DBE rewrite is at the DBE certification guide. This page tracks what is open; those pages track how to qualify.
Capital that is actually reachable today
Four of the 5 open doors in this slice are lenders and free programs rather than grants, and they are the only funding on this page a Latino owner can start today and finish this month. They are counted separately from grants throughout, because a loan is a liability and a grant is not, and a page that adds them together is flattering itself. Three lend: LEDC in the Washington DC region, Kiva nationally at zero interest, and Accion Opportunity Fund across most of the country. One is a free incubator: Hot Bread Kitchen in New York City. All four underwrite or admit on something other than a credit score, which is why they reach owners the banking system has already declined.
LEDC, the Latino Economic Development Center, lends $500 to $250,000 across the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia and is the only dedicated Latino capital institution in this slice. Its SEED product is the unusual one: it lends to businesses that have not launched yet, within roughly three months of formation, which almost no other community lender in the country will do. Free bilingual consulting comes with the relationship rather than as an upsell.
Kiva U.S. lends $1,000 to $15,000 at zero percent interest with no fee, no collateral and no credit check, and our catalog rates it the easiest application in this slice at 10 out of 10. The real gate is not Kiva’s approval, it is the 15-day crowdfunding window that follows: your profile goes live and must attract lenders. Founders who privately line up five to fifteen backers before the window opens fund reliably; founders who post and wait often do not. Accion Opportunity Fund lends $5,000 to $250,000 on cash-flow underwriting — roughly three months of consistent business bank deposits matter more than a personal FICO score — and its published lending footprint excludes Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont and the District of Columbia, a limit our catalog does not yet record.
Eleven programs is a slice, not the market
This page is one demographic cut of the GrantCompass database, frozen on a date. The database itself holds all 665 US programs with what is true about each one now — type, level, status, deadline, award, hours of effort and who it is really written for. Filter it to what is open where you are, star the handful worth your time, and the deadline watch runs for you at no cost.
- 1. Filter to open programs near you
- 2. Star what clears your gates
- 3. We email you before each one closes
Which of these are actually worth a Latino owner’s evening
Three picks from reading all 11 rows against ease, hours, competition and ceiling — and one program to think twice about. This is a judgement written by hand once and preserved when the counts above are recomputed. It is an opinion about the data, not a calculation from it.
Kiva U.S. 0% microloan
Up to $15,000 at zero interest, ease 10 out of 10, competition 2 out of 5, no credit check and no fee. Nothing else in this slice combines an application anyone can complete with capital that costs nothing to hold. Budget the seven hours our catalog estimates mostly for the crowdfunding push, not the form, and do the private recruiting before your profile goes live. If you are pre-launch, this and LEDC’s SEED loan are the only two doors on the page that open at all.
LEDC small business loans
$500 to $250,000, ease 8 out of 10, competition 2 out of 5, about three hours to apply, rolling all year. Geography decides this one entirely: it is worth an evening if you are in the District, Maryland or Virginia, and worth nothing if you are not. The reason it ranks above the grants is that it is a dedicated Latino institution that is actually open, which is a description that fits nothing else in Tier 1 today.
Camelback Ventures Fellowship
$50,000 in capital, closing September 18, 2026, competition 5 out of 5, about twelve hours of work. Camelback’s current application page describes its focus as education and conscious technology — edtech, health and wellness, workforce development, economic inclusion, policy and advocacy — rather than stating an ethnicity rule, so read the focus areas before the demographics. Worth the twelve hours only if your venture genuinely sits in one of them. It is the single dated cash deadline in this slice, which is the whole reason it makes the list.
PepsiCo Greenhouse Accelerator — Juntos Crecemos Edition
The headline is excellent and the eligibility is narrower than it reads. PepsiCo will not fund a brand that competes with its own portfolio, and its portfolio covers beverages, savoury snacks, oats and grains, sports drinks and juice — which is most of the Hispanic food and beverage founders the program appears to be for. Add competition rated 5 out of 5 and no announced 2026 cycle, and the honest advice is to set a reminder rather than start a narrative. The same applies to the Jefa-Owned grant: lighter work at roughly two hours, but nothing to enter today.
What changed on this page, and when
Six dated changes have moved the Hispanic and Latino slice of the GrantCompass catalog in August 2026. The ledger is append-only: each monthly recomputation adds entries rather than editing them away, so corrections stay visible.
- The SBA published its final rule at 91 Federal Register 51568, amending 13 CFR 124.103 to remove the 8(a) program’s rebuttable presumption of social disadvantage for individually owned firms. Hispanic Americans were one of the designated groups that presumption covered.
- That rule takes effect. Individually owned 8(a) applications filed on or after this date must establish social disadvantage by personal narrative. Entity-owned applicants are unaffected.
- The Camelback Ventures Fellowship was found reopened during the GrantCompass sweep that re-checked all 215 non-active catalog records, with Cohort 18 applications closing September 18, 2026. It had been carried as between intakes.
- Camelback’s award was logged for correction. Our catalog records a $25,000 seed grant; Camelback’s own application page states that Fellows receive $50,000 in capital. The verified figure is what this page prints, in the table and in the verdict.
- Accion Opportunity Fund’s footprint was logged for correction. Our catalog marks it national; Accion’s published coverage excludes Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont and the District of Columbia. The table row is labelled 44 states rather than national as a result.
- digitalundivided’s BREAKTHROUGH cohort geography was logged for correction: the catalog lists Houston, Atlanta and Detroit, while digitalundivided’s own BREAKTHROUGH page is recruiting Northern California and Nashville. The row is marked cycle-over rather than open: its sessions ran July 27 to August 14, 2026 and no next window is posted, though the application form is still reachable.
The numbers behind “Hispanic business grants”
The Census Bureau counted 465,202 Hispanic-owned employer businesses in the United States in 2022, about 7.9% of all US employer firms. GrantCompass tracks 11 funding programs written for or prioritising them. That is roughly one tracked program for every 42,291 Hispanic-owned employer businesses, and the ratio, not the program list, is the honest headline of this page.
What the 11 programs actually hand you
- Grants 7
- Loans 3
- Free programs 1
Status on August 24, 2026
- Zero of three. No grant written for Hispanic or Latino owners is accepting applications on August 24, 2026, and two of the three belong to one corporate sponsor.
- $25,000 is the median ceiling across the seven grant programs here, and it stays $25,000 whether Camelback is counted at the $25,000 our catalog held or the $50,000 its own page states.
- One program per 42,291 firms. Against 465,202 Hispanic-owned employer businesses, this is not a funding market, it is a rounding error with a mailing list.
- Four of the five open doors are lenders or free programs. For anything above five figures in 2026 the reachable route for a Latino owner is a CDFI, not a grant competition.
Seven fields per program that stay behind the wall
Eleven programs is a short enough list to read in an afternoon. Deciding which of them would actually fund you is the expensive part, and that assessment lives in the Win Layer GrantCompass attaches to every catalog record. This slice holds 71 such fields across its 11 programs, and all 11 carry five or more. None of it appears on the public page.
- Approval odds
- What winners look like
- How it is judged
- Rejection traps
- Required documents
- When cash actually lands
- Clawback risk
Pro unlocks all seven fields on all 665 programs, plus deadline alerts. $49/mo · $249/yr.
See what Pro unlocks →The questions Latino owners actually type
Are there government grants for Hispanic-owned businesses?
Not as cash to individuals. The federal government does not award start-up grants on the basis of ethnicity, and no program in this slice is a federal grant. Federal money reaches Hispanic-owned businesses in three other shapes. Certification opens set-aside contracts, principally through the SBA 8(a) Business Development Program and state and city MBE registers. Free advisory capacity is funded through intermediaries: Minority Business Development Agency centres and Small Business Development Centers cost you nothing. Credit enhancement flows through your bank under the Treasury’s State Small Business Credit Initiative. Any site advertising a federal Hispanic business grant is selling a list, a course or your contact details.
What can a Latina-owned business apply to right now?
Latina owners sit in the intersection of two slices, and the honest answer spans both. In this slice the open doors today are the Camelback Ventures Fellowship for education and conscious-technology ventures, Kiva, Accion Opportunity Fund, LEDC in the DC region and Hot Bread Kitchen in New York. The women-of-color tiers — which programs name Latina founders explicitly, which merely include them, and which monthly microgrants reset every thirty days — are maintained separately on the grants for women of color page, and duplicating them here would only make both pages less accurate.
Does a Hispanic-owned business need MBE certification to get funding?
Not for anything on this page. No grant, loan or program in this slice requires a minority business enterprise certificate, and the private grants ask only for self-attested ownership at 51% or more plus formation documents. Certification does a different job: it makes you findable and eligible inside procurement systems. A state or city MBE certificate opens public contracting; a National Minority Supplier Development Council certificate opens corporate supplier-diversity programs; SBA 8(a) opens federal sole-source and set-aside awards, with the September 10, 2026 evidence change described above. Certify if your growth plan is contracts. If your growth plan is grants and working capital, certification costs weeks and returns nothing.
Why are there so few Hispanic and Latino business grants?
Three forces, and none of them is that the money moved somewhere better. First, the dedicated programs in this segment have always been corporate rather than public, which means they follow marketing calendars and can be paused without notice — PepsiCo controls two of the three here. Second, the legal challenges of 2023 and 2024 made explicitly race-conditioned grant contests expensive to run, and the two multi-ethnic prizes Latino founders most often ask about, Black Ambition and the Fearless Fund Strivers Grant, are both off the board; their status is documented on our Black-owned open-now page. Third, community lending grew while grant-making shrank, which is why four of the five open doors on this page are lenders and incubators.