In February 2026, the Entrepreneurship Center for Growth and Excellence officially launched at a gathering of the city’s elected and business leaders, giving Birmingham small-business owners a new central hub built specifically for them. The EC is funded through Reinvest Birmingham alongside Regions Bank, Kresge Foundation, Mastercard, and Prosper Birmingham, and it’s led by Kendra Key, a Regions Bank executive serving as its inaugural director. The center exists to do four things:
- Act as a front door for entrepreneurs looking for guidance
- Drive growth strategies for locally owned businesses
- Convene the broader small-business support ecosystem
- Connect entrepreneurs to trade knowledge and grow together
Beyond linking businesses to resources that already exist, the EC is also tasked with spotting the gaps in that ecosystem and recruiting programs to fill them. Business owners can get started at ecbham.com.