PayPal Holdings said that it would pledge around $530 million in funding to aid and support black and minority-owned businesses in the United States to address issues of racial and economic inequalities.
The electronics payments company headquartered in California also said that the bulk of the money – $500 million – will aid in creating an economic opportunity fund that would invest in black and under-represented minority businesses and communities. This will primarily be done through PayPal Ventures, the company’s investment arm.
Of the $500 million, the company will also extend an amount of $10 million to businesses run by the African-Americans that have been disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic or the civil unrest in the United States following the killing of George Floyd in police custody.
The organization said that it would fund this amount through community banks and credit unions serving minority communities or through direct investments.
“Let me be clear: I stand with our Black teammates and with the Black community, as does the entire PayPal community,” CEO Dan Schulman said in an internal memo. “We stand with you and we support you – and we must publicly declare that Black lives matter.”
The memo also confirmed that PayPal would invest $15 million to promote diversity in the organization by means of its diversity and inclusion programs. This move is significant considering that African-Americans account for only 6 per cent of the total workforce of PayPal.
Further, it said that $5 million will be invested in the non-profit partners that PayPal associates with.
In announcing these measures, PayPal joins a host of other organizations such as Apple, Amazon, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Nike, among many others that have strongly committed to investing in fostering and promoting social and racial justice.
