SALT LAKE CITY, January 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Nav, the simple and intelligent financing platform for small businesses, today announced Prince Abou’s Butchery as the latest $10,000 grand prize winner of its Small Business Grant. Prince Abou’s Butchery is a provider of locally sourced, natural halal meats based in Queens, NY. Abou Sow, the owner and sole employee, will use the funds to expand his inventory, join local farmers markets, and employ staff to help with increased sales.
“The Nav Small Business Grant has been an integral part of our mission at Nav to help small businesses succeed for years, but it’s become even more meaningful in the past 10 months amidst the economic upheaval of the pandemic. Small businesses are especially vulnerable, and access to capital is more important than ever for ventures to thrive,” said Greg Ott, Nav CEO. “We’re proud to help Abou Sow. Small businesses are the backbone of our local communities, and Prince Abou’s Butchery is an example of that. He built a successful business supplying customers with local, fresh meats; this grant will help him hire a team and expand his inventory of high-quality food.”
Sow founded Prince Abou’s Butchery in January 2020 with a mission to bring truly fresh meats to New Yorkers. The son of a paramount village chief in his home country of Senegal, West Africa, Sow named the business after that fact and used his personal savings to get the venture off the ground. His unique business model is designed to butcher and deliver halal meat from farm to customer within the same week in order to ensure optimal freshness. Looking ahead, Sow aims to partner with more local farmers and join regional farmer’s markets. As the only employee, he also plans to use the grant to hire employees to help him manage increased sales.
“It’s a tragedy that so many New Yorkers and people across this country eat meat that’s not fresh. Our business model is designed to keep our meat fresh, the way it should be. I intend to rescue Americans from this travesty one lamb chop at a time,” said Sow, owner and operator of Prince Abou’s Butchery. “My goal of opening a butcher shop was to make the transaction of buying meat completely transparent. You know where the meat is coming from, who’s butchering it, and where it’s being butchered. This grant will help me maintain that goal, no matter what. Even if our city enters another shutdown, we will continue to keep our community fed.”
Nav also awarded the $5,000 runner-up prize to Our Loving Village, a childcare and education provider in Stamford, Texas. BriTanya Bays, CEO and owner, founded the company in 2019 based on the ancient African proverb that “it takes a village to raise a child.” As first-time parents to twins, Bays and her husband saw the value of building a community of like-minded parents who “want to raise a more engaged generation of children who learn healthy habits to take care of themselves, others, and the environment.” Bays plans to use the grant money to invest in the Our Loving Village edible garden project, focused on empowering children and their families through food, nutrition and education.
The Nav Small Business Grant was established in 2018 to raise awareness for the challenges entrepreneurs face in building their business. Since, it has awarded $95,000 to small businesses across the country. In the last round, winners of Nav’s $10,000 grand prize included Thr3e Live Dance Complex, a mission-driven coffee shop, and The Boho Market, a Dallas marketplace for local artisans.
The next round of Nav’s Small Business Grant is now open for applications through March 8, 2021. Learn more about the grant and how to apply here.