CalOSBA (or The California Office of the Small Business Advocate) has announced three new funding rounds with $1.5 billion in grants, per a press release by the agency. It will disburse the additional amount under California’s pandemic relief grant program. The application window is from Sep 9 to Sep 30th, 2021. 

The additional $1.5 billion expansion makes California’s small business relief program the largest in the country.

“With three new rounds to aid equitable economic recovery, California is keeping its promise to small businesses, families and individuals to push back on the pandemic-induced financial hardships and create the environment for small businesses to come back better than before,”

Tara Lynn Gray, Director of the Office of the Small Business Advocate, California

Programs, tools, and initiatives by Cal OSBA

California OSBA has many initiatives, tool, and programs for businesses and entrepreneurs. Here’s a list of some important initiatives by CalOSBA.

• Innovation Hub (iHub) Program: The Inland Empire has two iHub offices including Palm springs iHub + Coachella valley economic partnership and the Inland Social link iHub now called the Riverside County Office of Economic Development. This program aims to improve California’s national and global competitiveness by promoting partnerships, economic development, and job creation. Each local iHub program runs as a partnership between the local government, public universities, research institutions, venture capitalist networks, and economic development organizations. Click here to learn more about the network of iHub programs in California.
• Get Digital CA: This is an e-commerce initiative for CA’s local businesses to benefit from accelerators and intensive trainings to build the skills necessary to compete in an online marketplace. You can get access to things like digital bootcamps, technology learning center, and digital tools
• Source Diverse Source Local: It is a is a public-private collaboration to strengthen inclusive procurement programs and build a resilient California-based supply chain. You can access things like learning the basics to sell to business businesses, contract readiness accelerator, and corporate supply chain partners (having large corporations committed to local procurement).

Author: Sharjeel

Sharjeel joined Startempire Wire as emerging technologies editor. Earlier, he worked at Silicon Canals, a leading English language technology media source for the Benelux and wider Europe. He covered the European technology and startup ecosystem digging into latest funding rounds of startups.