C2FO, the world’s on-demand working capital platform, and the Schultz Family Foundation, founded by Sheri Schultz and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, announced a new initiative designed “to provide access to $100 million in working capital for small and diverse businesses.”
Leveraging unique data from the C2FO platform, the partnership “encourages diverse business owners and entrepreneurs to apply for flexible loans at competitive rates that will enable high-potential businesses to grow and expand.”
Unlike products from banks and alternative lenders, each loan is “based on each business’s unique potential, including growth and management team, rather than solely on the number of years it has been in business, last year’s profit, or last month’s accounts receivable balances.”
To enable the partnership, the Schultz Family Foundation has “invested $10 million from its Entrepreneurs Equity Fund into C2FO’s lending program.”
C2FO will “leverage the $10 million investment from the Foundation to expand its existing funding capacity with impact credit firm Community Investment Management, enabling C2FO to expand its existing loan program and deliver an additional $100 million in projected loans in the next year.”
The joint initiative from C2FO and the Schultz Family Foundation “recognizes that diverse-owned businesses are powerful vehicles for fostering a more inclusive economy, creating jobs and building wealth in historically marginalized communities.”
Yet, despite their immense potential, many “face persistent economic structural inequities and barriers.”
Access to capital, “particularly access to competitively priced and flexible capital, has long been the primary impediment to the growth of diverse businesses.”
Thus, increasing access to working capital, “in particular, enables businesses to expand their day-to-day operations without diluting diverse business owners’ equity ownership.”
Howard Schultz, Schultz Family Foundation co-founder and Starbucks CEO, said:
“America’s future rests on our entrepreneurial fire. But in recent years, the spark within many entrepreneurs has struggled to find the oxygen to burn bright. The causes are many: predatory practices, lack of access to capital and social networks, the need for learning and community, and the systemic failures that lead some to not even try. Providing working capital to help diverse businesses meet customer demand and scale has enormous potential to be a powerful economic catalyst for the country as a whole and historically marginalized communities in particular.”
Alexander “Sandy” Kemper, founder and CEO of C2FO, said:
“We are proud to partner with the Schultz Family Foundation. This is a fabulous opportunity for our two organizations to support small and diverse-owned businesses in a big way. We know that when businesses have equitable access to the capital they need — when a financial system is truly inclusive — we all win. Our partnership with the Foundation will increase the number of loans we are able to give, supporting even more businesses than ever with easy, equitable and flexible access to capital.”
C2FO’s partnership with the Schultz Family Foundation is “based on each organization’s mutual commitment to diverse-owned businesses. C2FO’s mission is to ensure every business has the capital needed to thrive.”
The company delivers on its mission “through a suite of working capital products and services that unlock access to on-demand capital and put control in the business owners’ hands.”
Because diverse-owned businesses have increasingly incorporated C2FO products and services into their cash management strategy, in 2022, the C2FO platform “provided more than $4.7 billion in funding to minority- and women-owned businesses across the United States.”
This fueled business growth and enabled owners “to invest in increased staffing, product or technology expansions, and more.”
Partnering with the Schultz Family Foundation is “the most recent effort that builds on C2FO’s history of creating products and offerings that support businesses through innovative working capital solutions.”