After immigrating to Canada from Kenya with dreams of starting her own business, entrepreneur Jackee Kasandy soon concluded that Canadian banks weren鈥檛 keen on opening their vaults to folks like her.

Kasandy, founder of the non-profit Black Entrepreneurs and Businesses of Canada Society, said she faced many roadblocks from Canadian lending institutions as she sought funding.

Now, Kasandy wants other Black entrepreneurs to have a leg up when starting out, holding a contest with a $25,000 prize for Black entrepreneurs with big ideas and small bank balances.

Rather than requiring entrants to have full business plans with their pitches, the society鈥檚 Black Pitch Contest calls on people who self-identify as Black to submit a short video outlining their ideas.

After receiving nearly 150 entries, the society whittled the field down to five finalists, two of them based in British Columbia.

Before founding the society, Kasandy said she had many strikes against her in the eyes of banks, as an immigrant who didn鈥檛 own a home.

Without collateral to get a loan, she scraped and saved to eventually open her store on Vancouver鈥檚 Granville Island, selling fair-trade, handmade products by artists from her native Kenya.

鈥淚 used my savings, my credit card, my RRSP, all of that stuff to start the business,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 have any family here. It鈥檚 not like I can go to my uncle and my auntie, my mom, and borrow some money. I鈥檓 an immigrant.鈥�

The banking system, she said, doesn鈥檛 value people and their ideas if they鈥檙e not wealthy or don鈥檛 own homes.

Kasandy hopes to change that system through the Black Pitch Contest and the society.

鈥淵ou might have a really good idea, but if it can鈥檛 get funded it goes nowhere,鈥� she said.

Peter Mwariga, a director of the society and contest judge, said finalists would have to demonstrate they understand their target markets and especially their competition.

He said that after coming to Canada in 1989 from Kenya, he too had trouble getting funding for his business as an immigrant without a home to offer as collateral.

Like Kasandy, he lacked independent wealth or a lengthy credit history as he tried to navigate the unfamiliar landscape of the Canadian financial system.

Judging the contest鈥檚 pitches and picking the best entries was difficult, Mwariga said, 鈥渂ecause they all have amazing ideas and we want them all to succeed, but unfortunately we can鈥檛 award 25K to everybody.鈥�

Finalists were coached to refine their pitches before going in front of the judging panel, and Mwariga said the winning pitch would have to outline a 鈥渕arket strategy that is well defined.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 slightly longer than an elevator pitch, so they need to be a bit more articulated in how they present their business, which is important because they鈥檒l be going up in front of investors,鈥� he said.

Mwenda Dyck, 22, is among the finalists, pitching his vertical farming company South Central Greens.

Dyck said the money could help him scale up his operation, which involves plants grown in stacked racks, and buy new equipment to outfit a barn facility.

Tired of Manitoba winters, Dyck relocated to Abbotsford in early 2022 to study agriculture and horticulture at the University of the Fraser Valley.

He said he aspired to sell nutrient-dense microgreens and other crops to local restaurants and farmers markets.

As a young Black person starting out in business, Dyck said he had come up against people who might not validate or value his ideas based on how he looks, but he didn鈥檛 let that dissuade him from his goals.

鈥淪ome people may not credit you as much as they should, just kind of based on your appearance, which is disheartening,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut at the same time, you can鈥檛 let that take your motivation away, otherwise you鈥檙e not going to move forward.鈥�

Dyck said he had been motivated and inspired by Kasandy鈥檚 story and that of the society.

鈥淪he went through all of these challenges in terms of finding funding, building her network and just running her business and she didn鈥檛 want it to be so hard for other Black entrepreneurs,鈥� he said.

Vancouver-based Deress Asghedom is another of the Black Pitch finalists.

Asghedom鈥檚 Vaster App is an artificial intelligence-driven software application that allows cannabis users to scan products with a smartphone to find out potency and production information.

Asghedom likens it to the music-identification app Shazam, but instead of using a phone鈥檚 microphone to identify songs, it uses a camera to scan and display product information.

He said a 鈥渟eries of unexpected events鈥� culminated in creating the app. He said he first wanted to apply it in the restaurant sector for things like nutrition information after his father had a health scare.

But the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the hospitality industry forced him to pivot.

He came up with his new idea after seeking a cannabis-based therapy for his dog when it developed arthritis.

Asghedom said the product he was recommended had an adverse effect on his pet, and he later found out from a vet that he had been given the wrong treatment. He also struggled to figure out correct dosages.

鈥淭hat got me thinking maybe there鈥檚 a way that we can use the technology that we鈥檝e already developed to try and make it easier for people to interact and learn about the product without having to have deep knowledge or an encyclopedic memory,鈥� he said.

The pitch contest had been a 鈥済odsend,鈥� he said, and winning the money would bring a full version of the app closer to market after initial success with a beta version among cannabis brands and dispensaries.

The social implications of being a Black-owned business in the cannabis world were not lost on Asghedom, he said, with the history of regulation and criminalization that disproportionately affected Black people.

鈥淚f I can provide a different narrative for what it looks like to be a Black entrepreneur in cannabis, then that鈥檚 a welcome responsibility that I want to represent in the best way that I can,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 see myself as an entrepreneur first.鈥�

The winner of the pitch contest will be selected at the society鈥檚 Black Business Summit, a free event being held online Feb. 24 and 25. The keynote speaker will be former governor general Michaelle Jean.

Darryl Greer, The Canadian Press

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