Silicon Valley Bank is helping women and minorities get the financial help they need to gain technology skills.
The Santa Clara, California, bank has dedicated $30 million of low-cost education financing to Stride Funding, a company that helps students pay for higher education more flexibly, such as through income-share agreements, the companies announced on Thursday.
This warehouse credit facility will be funneled into a deferred-tuition program for graduates of SV Academy, a skills and training organization meant to help job seekers transition to technology positions. SV Academy offers both pre-hire training and 12 months of upskilling on the job after graduation.
Silicon Valley Bank, a unit of the $191 billion-asset SVB Financial Group, also provides banking services to SV Academy.
"We are excited to support Stride's efforts to increase accessibility and affordability for students across the nation and further SV Academy's mission to help job seekers forge a path into the tech sector," Nick Christian, head of specialty finance at the bank, said in a news release.
The deferred-tuition program from Stride, using the warehouse facility provided by the bank, will let graduates pay tuition in equal installments only in those months where they are earning at least $3,750 per month.
SV Academy says that 60% of its students are women and 72% are people of color.
“Partnering with industry leaders like SV Academy and SVB bolsters our ability to deliver on our mission of serving as a catalyst for career growth and economic mobility,” Tess Michaels, founder and CEO of Stride, said in the release.
The warehouse facility is part of Silicon Valley Bank’s broader Access to Innovation initiative, where the goals are to increase funding for startups and venture firms founded by women, Black, Latinx and other underrepresented groups, and to promote diversity and gender parity in leadership.
The bank is a founding sponsor of LatinxVC, a group that aims to increase the number of Hispanic professionals in venture capital; BLCK VC, a nonprofit for Black investors; and more. It also invested in Valence, a networking group for Black professionals, among other groups for diverse professionals.
