The Social Affect Companion Highlight sequence highlights varied Cisco non-profit group companions which are serving to rework the lives of people and communities. This weblog options Cisco’s partnership with Astia and Kiva, in honor of the unbelievable work these organizations are doing to advance funding alternatives to Black, Indigenous, and Individuals of Colour-owned companies in the USA and globally.  

Cisco Social Innovation Investments (SII) and the Cisco Basis companion with nonprofits globally to put money into equitable and revolutionary tech-enabled options that present significant and scalable influence, particularly in underserved communities. Supporting alternatives and partnerships that degree the taking part in area for promising however typically neglected entrepreneurs and corporations is a key driver of Cisco SII and the Cisco Basis’s capability to make long-lasting influence on a neighborhood, nationwide, and world scale. Be taught extra about two of Cisco’s companions, Astia and Kiva, who’re main impactful work in offering alternatives and sources for entrepreneurs and their companies– and find out about methods to help each organizations.   

Astia

“Astia’s funding crew got here to the desk with the experience, they made calls on my behalf and took investor conferences with me – they breathed life into the funding course of. Inside a mere 4 months of Astia saying sure, we had important traders on our cap desk, and we achieved an oversubscribed spherical.”
– Tanya Van Court docket, Founder & CEO, Goalsetter 

Lower than 3% of enterprise capital is invested into women-led startups with ladies CEOs, and a mere 0.3% is deployed into firms led by Black or Latina ladies. Astia is a worldwide pioneer investing in revolutionary, women-led firms. With a popularity for innovating on the enterprise capital mannequin, Astia is a beacon of success for traders and entrepreneurs. Its mission is to degree the funding taking part in area for firms led by ladies, with a specific emphasis on doing so for Black and Latina CEOs. To handle the intersectionality of race and gender, Astia established a transparent focus by way of an effort referred to as Astia Edge, a program designed to redress the funding imbalance. Be taught extra about their findings and focus on this Bloomberg interview with Astia’s CEO and obtain the Edge whitepaper. 

Cisco funding and strategic steerage have enabled the event of an underlying know-how platform, Astia Join. By way of Join, 5,000+ specialists across the globe join with 1,000+ firms annually, elegantly eradicating bias from the funding decision-making course of by leveraging technical instruments and confirmed processes. Join allows multistage, community-driven screening (Professional Sift™) and connections. Cisco’s help has enabled Astia to scale its influence from working with dozens of entrepreneurs annually, to serving tons of of firms annually. 

In 2023, Astia reviewed 1,033 firms, together with these led by 100 Black ladies and 46 Latina CEOs. This represents greater than $2.2B in funding alternatives. The present Astia Fund portfolio firms signify:

• Staff: 54% ladies, 36% folks of shade
• Management: 70% ladies, 30% folks of shade
• Board: 61% ladies, 39% folks of shade
• Options addressing 14 of the 17 UN Sustainable Improvement Objectives

Profitable outcomes of a few of these firms embody: 

• 

  Candesant: in 2023 launched Brella SweatControl Patch, FDA cleared, for the remedy of extreme underarm sweat, forging a brand new path ahead for aesthetic clinicians and the sufferers they deal with. Brella obtained the 2023 Attract Journal Better of Magnificence Breakthrough Award

• Goalsetter: Nationally acknowledged for its real-world method to family-focused monetary schooling, Goalsetter is a goal-based financial savings and good spending platform that gives households with each participating academic media and the foundational instruments for constructing wealth and was chosen by Apple as one of many high 24 apps for 2024 of their unique function, “Our Favorites: 24 Apps for 2024.” with Tanya Van Court docket being honored by in American Banker’s Most Influential Girls in Fintech  
• Mae Well being: a digital well being answer on a mission to enhance the well being and high quality of life for underserved moms, infants, and people who love them, chosen as a finalist for the Massachusetts eHealth Institute’s Girls’s Well being Problem and spotlighted within the 2024 Digital Well being New York 100 

Involved in serving to with Astia’s effort to degree the funding taking part in area? Be a part of in two significant methods: 

1. Turn out to be an Astia Advisor: a world group of business specialists, traders and serial entrepreneurs who’re devoted to seeing extra ladies achieve high-growth entrepreneurship.
2. Spend money on one of many Astia Funds: Astia invests by way of a household of funds which allow traders to say their values by way of investments. 

Kiva 

“Since our founding, Kiva has been dedicated to addressing the finance gaps that exist for underserved communities worldwide and this work has prolonged into the U.S., the place numerous entrepreneurs lack entry to the financing they should begin or develop their companies. We’re thrilled to companion with Cisco in supporting Black and African American entrepreneurs by way of 0% curiosity loans, resulting in extra thriving companies and communities throughout the nation. We are able to’t thank Cisco sufficient for his or her transformational help of this important work.”
– Brit Heiring, Director of Communications, Kiva 

Kiva is a world nonprofit based in 2005 with a mission to develop monetary entry to assist underserved communities thrive – offering equitable entry to monetary services to historically excluded populations. Black, Indigenous, and Individuals of Colour-owned companies are thrice extra prone to be turned away by banks than non-minority-owned companies, (NerdWallet). Kiva envisions a financially inclusive world the place all folks maintain the ability to enhance their lives – specializing in 4 key areas of help: ladies, refugees, systemically marginalized entrepreneurs within the U.S., and other people impacted by local weather change. 

Cisco’s funding and strategic steerage have supplied help for a wide range of Kiva initiatives, investing in early-stage concepts and experimentation, and serving to Kiva to efficiently replicate and scale these initiatives globally. This contains initiatives to design and take a look at revolutionary mortgage merchandise in new markets and sectors, and the variation of Kiva’s world mannequin for the U.S. market.  Cisco has additionally donated our know-how to allow Kiva to scale their attain in a safe, environment friendly, and efficient method. 

In 2021, Cisco supplied help to assist Kiva speed up lending and capability constructing to aspiring and present underserved small enterprise house owners within the U.S. and develop their Hubs mannequin to almost a dozen new cities. That work has continued to additional enhance help to black entrepreneurs within the U.S. by way of Cisco’s Social Justice grant-making program.  

At present, Kiva U.S. operates in all 50 states, with 40+ Hub companions and 100+ trustee companions. In 2023, Kiva reached 10,000 debtors, a 49% enhance since 2020. And, of the $69M in 0% curiosity loans funded over the course of this system, 72% has supported Black, Indigenous, and Individuals of Colour entrepreneurs and 36% has supported Black entrepreneurs, like Kiki. 

To higher perceive and measure the influence on these debtors’ lives, Kiva partnered with 60 Decibels in 2022 to interview each Kiva debtors and non-borrowers. The outcomes communicate for themselves: 

• With no Kiva mortgage, 1 in 4 debtors would’ve needed to shut their enterprise 
• 3 in 4 debtors wouldn’t have been capable of finding a very good different for financing 
• 73% of Kiva US debtors noticed their enterprise outlook enhance 

Now, wanting forward, Kiva is dedicated to supporting a further 7,500 systemically marginalized folks within the U.S. by 2028. 

Cisco is proud to proceed to help Kiva in reaching Black, Indigenous, and Individuals of Colour communities within the U.S. with monetary entry. See how one can become involved, too: 

Share: