NC BEC GROWTH

NC BEC GROWTH

Backs Black-led North Carolina entrepreneurs through follow-on support linked to prior startup seed recognition.

NC BEC GROWTH is a follow-on grant program administered by the NC Black Entrepreneurship Council (NC BEC), a dedicated council operating within NC IDEA, the Raleigh-based private foundation. The program awards grants to Black-led startups in North Carolina that have previously received the NC IDEA SEED grant. NC BEC was established to address the Black entrepreneurship gap in North Carolina and has deployed more than $2 million across its portfolio of programs since its formation. The NC BEC GROWTH program represents a distinct follow-on track from the main SEED program, not merely a demographic filter on the same award.

The hard eligibility prerequisite is prior receipt of an NC IDEA SEED grant; this is a disqualifying condition for applicants who have not previously won SEED, not a soft preference. The founding team must identify as Black-led. Specific award amounts, the number of grants per cycle, and 2026 cycle open and close dates are released through a formal Request for Proposals process and are not published on the standing NC BEC public page. NC IDEA directs prospective applicants to monitor the NC BEC page at ncidea.org/black-entrepreneurship-council/ for RFP announcements. The NC BEC also operates a separate ECOSYSTEM grant program (the 2026 cycle of which closed) and maintains 20 ECOSYSTEM partners, 14 ENGAGE partners, and relationships with 5 accredited NC HBCUs.

Because award amounts are not published in advance, applicants should treat the SEED grant as a gateway and actively monitor the NC BEC page for each annual GROWTH RFP. The program is sector-agnostic within NC IDEA's broader portfolio of technology, hardware, and innovation-oriented startups. The follow-on structure means GROWTH recipients have already demonstrated milestone performance under SEED's disbursement requirements, which positions them as lower-risk candidates for additional non-dilutive capital.