December 2020

Welcome to the first edition of the CNote impact Round-Up! In this monthly publication, we’ll take you through some of the most impactful and popular things we recently shared, discovered, or learned. From big industry news to op-ed pieces, we’ll paint an entertaining and full-spectrum picture of everything that you need to know in the sustainability and impact investing space.

As Crises Deepen Inequity, CDFIs Act as a Counterforce to Build Community Assets by Capital Impact Partners.

COVID-19 has had a disproportionate effect on low-income communities and communities of color. CDFIs have stepped up to serve as a counterforce, and ensure that these vulnerable communities have access to fair and responsible lending for community-based projects.

Sustainability Is the Next Digital by Bain and Company. 

“Similar to the digital revolution before it, the sustainability revolution changes everything.” While “sustainability” has become household vernacular, this article is definitely an eye-opener in terms of how much this revolution is changing the business landscape. These changes present both challenges and opportunities and will require businesses to pivot and adapt to succeed.

Foundations, Invest in Impact, by Alliance Magazine.

Impact Investing has become far more mainstream in the past few years. Still, according to this article, “40 percent of foundations say they don’t know enough about impact investing to incorporate it into their strategies.” Check out this article to see some tools and strategies for investing with impact, and if it is right for your foundation.

On Veterans Day, we highlighted Nola Veazie, who was featured on our Impact Story Blog.  Nola served 20 years in the Air Force before founding V-Solutions Consulting, which provides the latest substance abuse and mental health training, treatment, and protocols. By connecting with a CNote CDFI partner, Dr. Veazie was able to receive not only business mentorship but marketing and technology training to grow her business.

ESG By the Numbers by Sage Advisory

In 2009, Apple had just released the iPhone 3Gs, the Mets finished the season with a 70-92 record, and assets under management for sustainable funds was $113B.

A lot has changed since then. Well, not the Mets. But AUM for sustainable funds is 9x what it was back then. Check out the full article for an amazing infographic on how much U.S. sustainable funds have grown in the past decade.

The Business of Sustainability by the World Economic Forum 

 As the ESG field has grown, “the appetite for investments that address some of the world’s most pressing challenges has grown steadily in recent years.”

From this, business has the opportunity to create a more equitable, fair, and progressive society, which is necessary for a “sustainable, resilient, and market-oriented private sector.”

We need to revisit the small business lending process for women entrepreneurs by Catherine Berman.

“Consider this: Less than 5% of small business lending goes to women, despite the fact that about 1,800 new women-owned businesses join the United States economy each and every day.” CNote co-founder and CEO, Catherine Berman, authored this piece, discussing the immensely negative effect that unequal lending practices for women can and do have across the country.

ESG assets in U.S. surge 42% in last 2 years – report. By Pensions and Investments 

In the middle of November, The US SIF Foundation released its biennial report: On U.S. Sustainable and Impact Investing Trends. This article covers some of the report’s biggest findings, like “Sustainable investing assets in the U.S. grew 42% in the last two years.”

Want to Advance Racial and Economic Justice? Invest in Small, Black-Led CDFIs by Catherine Berman and Donna Gambrell

CNote has been chosen as the winner of the 2020 G7 – EU WEPs Best Women-Owned Business!

The award recognizes Women’s Empower Principles signatories’ exceptional championship of gender equality within their organizations and networks.

CNote’s submission was shortlisted by the UN Women team based on our application, which highlighted our internal measures and external actions taken to drive equality and women’s empowerment. We were then chosen as the winner by an appointed youth jury of young women, with a strong background in gender equality and women’s empowerment. They based their decision on which company they would like to work for, or with, in the future.

CNote co-founder and COO, Yuliya Tarasava, accepted the award at the online award ceremony on December 10th. She spoke about how much this award means to CNote, and how the Women Empowerment Principles are at the heart of everything that CNote does.

“Everything we do here in CNote is guided by our north star: ‘How do we build a more inclusive economy?’ Gender equality and women’s empowerment are the DNA of CNote, not just the investments that we deploy.”

About CNote

CNote is a women-led impact investment platform that uses technology to unlock diversified and proven community investments to generate economic mobility and financial inclusion. We empower investors to directly align their values with their investments through innovative cash and fixed income offerings.

We deploy capital through our CDFI partners, which are private financial institutions with a primary goal of delivering affordable lending to aid financially disadvantaged individuals and communities. These community partners benefit from CNote’s investments through access to new sources of capital that are often more flexible and mission-aligned.

Since 2016, CNote has been developing technology to unlock access to investments in racial equity, economic justice, and gender equity and help close the wealth gap in underserved communities across America.

Interested in making a difference with your investments? Check out our products page.

We’re proud to announce CNote has closed an oversubscribed investment round. See the full release below.

Selected Early Coverage:

• Crunchbase
• ImpactAlpha
• Yahoo! Finance

CNote Raises $3 Million to Scale Technology-Enabled Investment Into America’s Most Underserved Communities 

Fintech company focused on advancing economic justice through community investments will use the funding to grow its team and scale its cash and fixed income offerings

December 10, 2020 // Oakland, CA // CNote, a women-founded and led financial technology platform that makes it easy to invest in economic inclusion, has closed a $3 million dollar oversubscribed private funding round to extend its reach in the fast-growing socially responsible investing space. The funding round was led by ManchesterStory, with additional investments from Artemis Fund, SixThirty Ventures, H/L Ventures, Clearstone Capital, and Lateral Capital.

Since 2016, CNote has been developing technology to unlock access to investments in racial equity, economic justice and gender equity and help close the wealth gap in underserved communities across America. 

“This investment is particularly timely, as CNote works to match growing investor demand for impact investments with increased capital needs from our community partners,” said CNote CEO Catherine Berman. “Our partners, community development financial institutions (CDFIs), are leading the economic response and recovery efforts for underserved communities impacted by the pandemic, and our technology can help speed the flow of capital into these communities to support a faster recovery.” 

CNote empowers investors to directly align their values with their investments through innovative cash and fixed income offerings. CNote’s community partners benefit through access to new sources of capital that are often more flexible and mission-aligned. 

CNote is building a suite of tools to make community investing seamless. CNote’s diligence and underwriting technologies reduce the time to onboard community investments while maintaining stringent underwriting standards and risk controls. 

“Historically, there’s been no easy way to quickly source community investments addressing a specific cause like gender equity, and the underwriting process and time to investment has been lengthy,” Berman added, “Today, investors can source, deploy and service community investments through CNote’s platform in a matter of days or weeks, not months, and this funding round allows us to continue reducing the barriers to investing in communities across America.”   

Over the last 18 months, CNote has earned recognition as an Emerging Impact Manager in the 2020 Impact Assets 50 List and as the “Best Alternative Investments Platform” by Finovate 2020. Since CNote’s inception, investors have helped create more than 3,000 jobs across America and CNote has deployed over 50% of investor capital in BIPOC communities. In October of 2020, Mastercard expanded its partnership with CNote and made a $20 million-dollar commitment into CNote’s cash management solution, the Promise Account. In response to the pandemic, CNote launched the Rapid Response Fund to provide flexible long-term, low-cost capital to help communities recover. 

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About CNote

CNote is a women-led impact investment platform that uses technology to unlock diversified and proven community investments to generate economic mobility and financial inclusion. Every dollar invested on CNote’s platform funds small businesses owned by women and people of color, affordable housing, and economic development in financially underserved communities across America. With the mission of closing the wealth gap, CNote’s customizable products allow anyone to generate social and economic returns by investing in the causes and communities they care about.

CNote was selected as the Best Alternative Investment Platform at the 2020 Finovate Awards!

The Finovate Awards, which are in their second year of running, recognizes the individuals and companies that are driving fintech innovation forward.

Award judges included media analysts, board members, bankers, and fintech founders. They had the difficult task of distilling a record number of nominations into just a single winner in each of the 23 categories.

While we are excited, personally, to receive this award, we are far more thrilled that this growing recognition will bring more capital to a place where it can be leveraged to help vulnerable and financially underserved communities.

About CNote

CNote is a women-led impact investment platform that uses technology to unlock diversified and proven community investments to generate economic mobility and financial inclusion. We empower investors to directly align their values with their investments through innovative cash and fixed income offerings.

We deploy capital through our CDFI partners, which are private financial institutions with a primary goal of delivering affordable lending to aid financially disadvantaged individuals and communities. These community partners benefit from CNote’s investments through access to new sources of capital that are often more flexible and mission-aligned.

Since 2016, CNote has been developing technology to unlock access to investments in racial equity, economic justice, and gender equity and help close the wealth gap in underserved communities across America.

Interested in making a difference with your investments? Check out our products page.