Nav Awards $10,000 Small Business Grant to Alaskan Health and Wellness Tea Company
Based in Fairbanks, Sipping Streams Tea will use funds to meet evolving customer needs and ensure a more stable supply chain
SALT LAKE CITY, March 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Nav Technologies, Inc. (“Nav”), the simple and intelligent financing platform that makes it easy for small businesses to compare their financing options, today announced Sipping Streams Tea as the latest $10,000 grand prize winner of its quarterly Small Business Grant. Sipping Streams Tea aims to bring people and communities together through handcrafted, high-quality, and globally-sourced loose leaf tea.
Owned and operated by Jenny Tse out of Fairbanks, Alaska, Tse plans to use the grant money to purchase custom printed tea canisters for loose leaf teas. This move will answer new customer demand, as well as reduce the amount of labor needed to produce individual canisters.
“Even through the challenges of the last few years, Nav has always remained committed to supporting small businesses. We understand how hard it is for small businesses to get the financing they need and the impact $10,000 can make. That’s why it’s an honor to help business owners like Jenny, who is working tirelessly to bring people together and enrich her community,” said Greg Ott, Nav CEO. “Nav continues to be focused on helping small businesses better understand their financing options and make choices with confidence. We are excited to watch Sipping Streams Tea prosper and reach more customers.”
Founded in 2007, Sipping Streams Tea was brought to life with the goal of spreading the positive experience Tse’s family felt from the community and culture of tea. Like many small businesses, Jenny struggled to find the financing she needed to grow her business. She tried to get bank loans but despite her growing sales, banks turned her down. She raised $40,000 from family and friends as loans to start her first tea house location. Since then, Sipping Streams Tea has become an integral piece of its local community by holding tea parties, catering weddings, and hosting baby showers. Outside of Alaska, Tse has spoken and won awards at World Tea Expo — allowing Sipping Streams Tea to reach a wider audience.
“The most rewarding thing about running Sipping Streams Tea is hearing how impactful we are in helping people with their health and wellness. We love hearing stories about our customers’ children growing up and how we were one of the first places where they felt a community from when they first moved into our hometown,” said Tse. “Nav’s small business grant will help stabilize our working capital. Currently, we can’t sell as much tea as we’d like. The demand is for the teas to be in canisters, and when we don’t have them in canisters, we lose out on sales. This grant shows Nav’s dedication to supporting small businesses like mine.”
Nav also awarded a runner-up prize of $5,000 to Freedmen’s Town Farmers Market, a Houston-based farmers market set out to provide access to fresh and affordable food in Houston’s oldest African American neighborhood. Freedmen’s Town Farmers Market was founded in 2020 by Market Manager Sade’ Perkins, a Black Army veteran. She plans to use the funds to invest in an LLC, a trademark, a professional website and marketing, as well as for weekly operational costs such as porta potty rentals and donations to the church where they hold their market.
“The most rewarding thing about running my company is knowing that we’re making an impact in the community. We’re feeding people in a food desert while incubating small businesses and getting fresh organic produce and products to people who can benefit the most from them,” said Perkins. “We started the market with minimal capital and have managed cash flow on a week-to-week basis. This has made it challenging to invest in things like marketing, trademarks, and other things that will allow us to grow the market. The Nav grant will help change this dynamic by giving us some cash reserves and capital for investing in the market.”
Nav created the Nav Small Business Grant in 2018 to raise awareness about the obstacles small business owners experience when trying to access the capital they need to build and maintain their businesses. As of March 2022, Nav has awarded $200,000 to small businesses across the country. In the last round of grant winners, Nav provided a $10,000 grand prize to Herban Frequency, a Houston-based restaurant reimagining vegan cuisine.
The next round of Nav’s Small Business Grants are now open and will close on April 23rd. Learn more about the grant and how to apply here.
About Nav
Nav is the largest marketplace of curated financial products for small businesses. Nav uses real business data and proprietary scoring to give small businesses more transparency in finding the right loan or credit card option. Nav offers a unique, financial health dashboard showing credit and cashflow insights alongside recommended financing options. Nav’s platform also seamlessly integrates within other software and websites, making it the leading embedded finance solution for SMBs.
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