New Fund Will Expand Access to Capital for Small Businesses Owned by Entrepreneurs of Color

The Entrepreneur Backed Assets (EBA) Fund is a new nonprofit born out of collaboration among the Aspen Institute’s Business Ownership Initiative, the community development financial institutions that are members of Aspen’s Microfinance Impact Collaborative (MIC), and Revolve. EBA Fund is an innovative new financial tool that will strengthen the capacity of CDFIs to lend to small businesses in low-income communities and those owned by people of color by creating a secondary market for their microloans. Click here to read the press release.

CDFIs have stepped up to support small business owners affected by the pandemic but doing so has strained their liquidity and financial strength. EBA Fund is empowering these crucial institutions by purchasing existing loans, providing capital for new lending. With capital raised to date we have completed transactions with five of the six MIC members; 78% of the loans purchased are to entrepreneurs of color and 78% to businesses located in low- to moderate-income census tracts. To learn more about EBA fund, visit ebafund.org.
The fund has been launched with initial grant funding from the Citi Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Microsoft Corporation and Woodforest National Bank are making the first capital investments in the fund. Support for the initial testing and design work that led to the creation of the EBA Fund was provided by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, JPMorgan Chase, and the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth.