Dealflow | May 24, 2018

Calvert and Urban Advisors raise $12 million loan fund for entrepreneurs of color

Jessica Pothering
ImpactAlpha Editor

Jessica Pothering

ImpactAlpha, May 24 – The UP Community Fund will make loans ranging from $250,000 to $1.2 million to small businesses and organizations in the U.S. southeast, including the cities of Atlanta, Baltimore, St. Louis, and Charlotte.

Minority businesses are declined loans at a rate three times their non-minority peers and, when approved, pay an average of 200 basis points more. Calvert Impact Capital and impact consulting firm Urban Advisors closed on the first $12 million of a planned $30 million fund “to address systemic financing challenges for minority-owned businesses.”

The southeast ranks at the bottom among U.S. regions for economic mobility, though some cities are exceptions. Charlotte, for example, has more than 13,000 black-owned businesses and organizations such as BLKTECH Interactive are working to expand the ranks.