Enterprise Center launches fund to invest in minority-owned businesses
Media Outlet
Ayana Jones
Della Clark, president of The Enterprise Center is seeking to raise $50 million for the Innovate Capital Growth Fund to address the capital gap faced by numerous minority and women owned businesses in the mid-Atlantic region.
With the launch of the fund, TEC becomes the first Minority Business Development Agency Business Center in the country to have both a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) and an Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) under one roof.
“The SBA’s (Small Business Administration’s) SBIC program was founded in 1958 and has been one of the most successful federal programs ever for the benefit of U.S. small businesses,” said Clark who is a founding partner of Innovate Capital. “But these benefits have not always flowed to minority and women-owned businesses. This is due primarily to structural inequities and a lack of access to generational wealth, especially for business owners of color. Our fund is aimed directly at this problem, providing capital for these businesses to scale operations and unlock generational wealth for themselves.”
