Kevin Hart’s Coramino Fund Opens $10K Grant For Third Year To Close AI Divide

Kevin Hart’s Coramino Fund is now accepting applications for its $10,000 grant, including a training to help small business owners learn more about AI. 

The three-year-old Coramino Fund is an investment arm from Kevin Hart and Juan Domingo Beckmann’s Gran Coramino Tequila.

Grantees will receive a $10,000 grant, cutting-edge AI technological training, and hands-on learning to incorporate AI responsibly and effectively into their operations.

Closing The Disparity in AI Adoption

The Coramino Fund will equip entrepreneurs with AI training to address the disparity in AI adoption between small and larger business owners. Hart told Fortune that he believes the grants and AI education provided through the Coramino Fund is one of the better ways people can leverage “me, my company, my resources, and my partners.”

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Workers of color have historically been disproportionately affected by digital skill gaps compared to their white peers. This is due to structural factors resulting from longstanding inequities in American society, such as income and wealth gaps and uneven access to high-quality K-12 education.

A McKinsey Institute for Economic Mobility study revealed that the AI divide could widen the racial wealth gap by $43 million annually. Research from the National Skills Coalition found that one-third (33%) of all Black workers have limited digital skills, while 17% had no digital skills. 

Furthermore, many minority business owners also lack access to the same resources, funding, and training necessary to utilize AI effectively. According to a study led by Michigan State University’s Julian Samora Research Institute, citing U.S. Census data, Black-owned businesses had the lowest AI usage across all levels in 2023, with less than 2% of firms reporting “high use.” 

Meanwhile, nearly 78% of white-owned companies said they had a “high use” of AI adoption. (Hispanic-owned companies reported nearly 9%, and Asian-owned firms reported roughly 11% in the same category.)

What The Coramino Fund Offers 

The Coramino Fund will provide $10,000 grants to entrepreneurs in under-resourced communities. The grants are designed to foster business growth, with flexible uses including but not limited to:  

• Hiring new staff or promoting existing staff to bring a new product or service to market.
•  Purchasing equipment to add a new product or service to the business offerings.
• Upgrading physical space to serve customers better, and 
• Launching a marketing and promotional campaign to attract more customers. 

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Small businesses that receive the grants will be offered AI education through 1st Street Partnerships, a new partner of Gran Coramino® Tequila. Adopting this technology enables businesses to streamline operations, enhance customer experiences, and make data-driven decisions. The training will help small businesses compete with larger firms that leverage AI for efficiency and innovation. 

Kevin Hart is Helping Businesses Embrace AI

Hart obviously recognizes the power of using AI as a business owner. In March, he announced that he was partnering with the Fifteen Percent Pledge to support Black founders using AI. 

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The AI Illumination Grant will train Black-owned entrepreneurs how to use AI to expand their businesses. The Fifteen Percent Pledge is also working with Kevin Hart’s Hartbeat Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz’s (A16z) Cultural Leadership Fund to launch the grant.

“We know AI can seem intimidating, but these dynamic webinars will break it down and empower you to embrace this powerful technology with confidence,” the Fifteen Percent Pledge website says.

Comedian and Actor Kevin Hart, image courtesy of Flickr