During this year’s National Small Business Week, an annual celebration of entrepreneurship and innovation, First Data’s cloud-based payment platform Clover launched CloverAchievers – a program designed to recognize and award small businesses in the U.S. who embody the Clover ethos of striving to accomplish more than the status quo and punching above their weight.

“As an entrepreneur myself, launching a business and watching it grow, I personally understand the daily challenges business owners face in running and growing their businesses,” said John Beatty, founder of Clover. “As part of our commitment to empowering small business success and providing innovative solutions, we’re excited to launch CloverAchievers and spotlight entrepreneurs who have a passion to succeed.”

Clover is a market-leading point-of-sale platform with more than one million merchant devices used globally. Clover enables customers to pay using a debit/credit card, in addition to mobile payment options such as Apple, Google and Samsung Pay. In 2018, Clover processed more than $70 billion in annualized payment volume, making it the fastest-growing point-of-sale platform in the industry.

“Clover has been leaps and bounds better than anything we have tried in the industry,” said Ethan Tobin, co-owner of The Liberty Pub in North Bend, Oregon. “With Clover, we have seen a 20% increase in revenue. We once had to run table orders back to the kitchen. Today, Clover helps us take orders faster, accept and secure payments, improve employee communication, design seating charts, and so much more.”

“Delivering killer collard greens and the perfect ribs was never a problem for our business, but using data to drive decisions was something we had no clue how to approach,” said Stephen Franklin, owner of Atlanta-based DAS BBQ. “The three biggest things we couldn’t do before – tracking our customers, following up with them, and incentivizing loyal customers – we can now do thanks to our partnership with Clover and its real-time data-driven capabilities.”

Starting today, the CloverAchievers program will provide grant awards to three qualifying small businesses who enter for a chance to win a portion of $100K in cash and prizes. To be eligible, small businesses must be in the U.S. and have fewer than 1,500 employees. Three winning businesses will receive a combination of a cash grant, a Clover technology and equipment makeover, and a charitable donation made in their name to an approved philanthropic organization of their choice.

A group of finalists will be announced by the end of August 2019, with three CloverAchiever winners then selected by a panel of judges in September 2019.

Businesses have until July 31, 2019 to submit their online applications at www.firstdata.com/clovercontest where they can review contest terms and conditions (or rules).

About First Data

First Data (NYSE: FDC) is a global leader in commerce-enabling technology and solutions, serving approximately six million business locations and more than 3,700 financial institutions in more than 100 countries around the world. The Company’s 19,000 owner-associates are dedicated to helping companies, from start-ups to the world’s largest corporations, conduct commerce every day by securing and processing more than 3,000 transactions per second and $2.6 trillion per year. For more information, visit www.firstdata.com and follow us on Twitter at @FirstData and LinkedIn.