CNote attends the National Bankers Association’s 95 Anniversary Conference in D.C.

The National Bankers Association’s 95th Anniversary Conference: Honoring the Past, Shaping the Future: MDIs and the Road to Wealth Creation was held on October 13th and 14th in Washington D.C. The conference featured two days of programs and events focused on strengthening minority depository institutions (MDIs). CNote’s Barāta A Bey, director of community finance, was in attendance. 

In addition to connecting in person with banks and vendors in the community and impact-driven finance space, Barāta sat in on talks featuring federal regulators, the U.S. Department of Treasury, and spokespeople from the Federal Reserve on topics including future MDI funding opportunities, advancing financial inclusion, and today’s economy. 

Barāta also attended a session, “Closing the Racial Wealth Gap: How Impact Investing and Reporting is Critical for MDIs,” which was a conversation around the key role investors can play in scaling the impactful work MDIs achieve. National Bankers Association (NBA) is a trade association focused on the priorities and needs of MDIs. NBA works to support and strengthen America’s minority-owned and operated banks through federal advocacy, policy, and programs. NBA’s members include Black, Hispanic, Asian, Pacific Islander, Indigenous, and women-owned and operated banks across the country, all working to help low- and moderate-income communities.Through NBA these members gain more opportunities to participate in national conversations about closing the racial wealth gap.

Dominik Mjartan (far left), CEO of CNote partner Optus Bank, and Nicole Elam (center left), president and CEO of NBA together with other conference speakers.

Major conference themes included the trends, challenges, and opportunities that uniquely impact MDIs. Barāta shared that the conference was “an inspiring showcase of innovative solutions coming out of the industry and the organizations and associations around MDIs that are similarly on a mission to eliminate the racial wealth gap in America.” At CNote we’re excited to fold his key learnings into the work we do with MDIs across the country and the communities they serve. 

To learn more about NBA and their annual conference, visit: https://www.nationalbankers.org/

CNote Closes Series A Investment, Cementing the Women–Led Impact Platform’s Leadership
in Closing the U.S. Wealth Gap Through Financial Innovation

September 19, 2022 // Oakland, CA // Building on the momentum of its impact platform—already adopted by corporate leaders including Apple, Mastercard, Netflix and PayPal as a scalable way to address wealth inequality in the U.S.—CNote announced today that it raised $7.25 million in an oversubscribed Series A investment round.

American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact led the round, joined by Astia Fund, BankTech Ventures, Commerce Ventures, CityRock Venture Partners and other investors.

CNote gives corporate treasurers a powerful ESG tool, driving high growth

“We’re addressing a massive systemic problem with a market-friendly platform that has already been adopted by forward-thinking corporations and other institutions,” said Catherine Berman, CEO and co-founder of CNote, which deploys investor funds into community financial institutions that advance economic equality, racial justice, gender equity and climate change adaptation. “By pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into undercapitalized communities, CNote is activating corporate dollars for systemic change while minimizing risk.”

CNote’s technology platform gives corporations a simple, safe way to deploy ESG cash and fixed income in underserved communities at scale. CNote places investor funds into deposit and loan products through a network of over 2,000 impact-driven community financial institutions that serve low- to moderate-income communities, support women and people of color entrepreneurs, fund affordable housing and provide other forms of economic inclusion.

CNote is deploying about $300 million in cash and fixed-income investments via its platform—reflecting over 370% growth since 2020. The platform has 1,900 corporate, foundation and individual investors, including AMD, Patagonia and Xylem, as well as the companies listed above.

Noted Berman, “For CEOs, CFOs and large institutional investors, CNote has the network, the community finance expertise and the technology to provide unparalleled access to ESG cash and fixed-income opportunities at scale alongside trackable impact. We’ve reduced the friction points so they can activate their balance sheets quickly and with minimal effort.”

The Series A investment will enable CNote to advance its technology, expand its sales team and deepen its network of community financial institutions.

Mission-aligned investors aim to advance equality and build strong communities

The Series A round reflects the women-led fintech’s insight that assembling a diverse stakeholder group is key to multiplying its successes. “We’re co-creating the future we want to see, and that requires bringing key stakeholders to the table, including these investors,” Berman said.

“CNote is leading the way in providing capital for CDFIs [community development financial institutions] and minority depository institutions, capitalizing on the exploding ESG market,” said Rob Kornblum, principal and portfolio manager for the American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact. “We know that capital access is one of the keys to producing generational wealth for underserved communities. We are thrilled to partner with Catherine and Yuliya [Tarasava, CNote co-founder] in leading the Series A round for CNote.”

H/L Ventures, a longtime advisor to CNote and a prior investor, manages a family of companies and funds that comprises a holistic company-building system.

“CNote is breaking new ground in impact investment, enabling some of the largest organizations in the world to make a difference with their treasury dollars,” said Oliver Libby, co-founding Managing Partner of leading New York venture firm CityRock Venture Partners, H/L Ventures’ opportunity fund. “Our firm seeks startups with high growth potential, positive impact and diverse leadership teams; under Catherine and Yuliya’s inspired management, CNote exemplifies the extraordinary, scalable business potential of investment for impact.”

Other investors in the round include return participants The Artemis Fund, BLD Ventures, Golden Seeds, Lateral Capital V LP, ManchesterStory Venture Fund, Oxford Angel Fund and Rebalance Capital.

About CNote
CNote, co-founded by Catherine Berman and Yuliya Tarasava, is a women-led impact platform on a mission to close the wealth gap through financial innovation. Using the power of technology and a community-first framework, CNote enables corporations, institutions and individuals to efficiently invest at scale in fixed-income and time deposit products that advance economic equality, racial justice, gender equity and climate change adaptation. CNote delivers regular reporting on the social impact of deposits and investments made through its platform. A Certified B Corporation, CNote was a B Lab “Best for the World” honoree in 2019 and was named “Best Women-Owned Business” by the U.N. Women’s Empowerment Principles program in 2020.

About The American Family Institute for Corporate and Social Impact
The American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact is a venture capital firm and partner of choice for exceptional entrepreneurs who are building scalable, sustainable businesses in a long-term effort to close equity gaps in America. It also recognizes that capacity building and supporting organizations and experts who have been working toward social causes are equally important in making a positive impact within our communities around the country.

Media Contacts

Thinkshift Communications for CNote

Sarah Grolnic-McClurg, sarah@thinkshiftcom.com

510-898-1837 (primary), 415-828-3143 (cell)

CNote attends the 24th Annual AACUC Conference in St. Pete Beach, Florida to connect with our credit union community

CNote was honored to attend The African American Credit Union Coalition’s (AACUC) 24^th Annual AACUC Conference held in St. Pete Beach, FL in August. The conference was a weeklong event offering training, networking, and educational opportunities for current and future credit union professionals and was a celebration of Black excellence in the credit union industry.

This year’s theme was “Reunite and Reignite” and the event featured an array of panels and speakers covering topics like technology and DEI, helping credit union managers recognize best practices to help engage and retain talent, and how to navigate today’s complex financial and economic environment; the inaugural Small Credit Union Summit; and the African American Credit Union Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. The conference concluded with a gala-style Pete Crear Lifetime Achievement Award ceremony, dinner and after party.

AACUC is a non-profit organization made up of diverse and multicultural credit union industry professionals and volunteers. The organization was created to increase the strength of the global credit union community and is recognized for shaping diversity, equity, and inclusion in the credit union movement. AACUC supports programs that offer benefits for African American credit union professionals and volunteers, credit unions, and credit union vendor partners. Their goals and objectives include

• expanding the interest and increasing the number of minorities in the credit union movement
• increasing outreach of the credit union movement in African countries and in the United States through credit union mentoring
• providing scholarship programs and educational opportunities to credit union professionals and volunteers toward professional development and advancement
• enhancing internship and scholarship programs for African American college students in pursuit of financial services careers to introduce them to and encourage them to seek employment within the credit union movement.

Barāta Bey, CNote’s Director of Community Finance, speaking to a room full of credit union professionals at the AACUC conference

At the conference, CNote participated with more than 30 other industry partners, and presented on the work we do to support credit unions and minority deposit institutions by streamlining their process of accepting outside deposits, providing tools and resources to better share and highlight their community impact, and by bridging long-term relationships between corporate investors and credit unions for sustainable funding relationships. Additionally, CNote’s booth at AACUC’s vendor fair provided a  chance to connect personally with diverse credit unions from across the country on their needs and how we might partner to address them.

Barāta Bey, one of the CNote team members to attend the in-person event said, “We’re taking away from this event a lot of great conversations, a lot of great new relationships, and new tactics for supporting these financial institutions at the front lines of supporting under-resourced communities. I’m really excited to see where these new connections take us when it comes to innovating smarter for credit unions and serving more communities in the US overall.”

To learn more about AACUC and their annual conference, visit: https://www.aacuc.org/

CNote’s Community Investment Platform Nears $300M, a Sign of Balance Sheet Activism Rising Across Business Sectors

Apple, Netflix, Xylem and others put corporate cash to work in financially underserved communities by moving money to CDFIs, LID credit unions and MDIs throughout the U.S.

June 2nd, 2022 // Oakland, CA // Recent commitments from Apple, Netflix and Xylem have pushed the total funding being deployed to communities via CNote’s investment platform to nearly $300 million. The milestone reflects accelerated momentum for the women-led fintech firm’s work to unleash corporate balance sheets for racial and gender equity.

“We’re seeing continued interest from large corporations in balance sheet activism. It’s a movement, not a moment,” said Catherine Berman, CEO of CNote, adding that “this interest runs across industries, as our newest clients illustrate. They’re looking at the corporate treasury as a tool to deepen their DEI, ESG and racial justice goals.”

CNote enables finance leaders to advance corporate goals while minimizing risk

Apple’s $25 million commitment to CNote, announced on May 5, is part of its broader Racial Equity and Justice Initiative, an effort to address systemic racism in America and expand opportunities for communities of color. According to Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives, “By working with CNote to get funds directly to historically under-resourced communities through their local financial institutions, we can support equity, entrepreneurship and access.”

Diversity, equity and inclusion are critical elements of Xylem’s sustainability strategy, the global water technology company said in announcing its initial $5 million commitment, noting that CNote’s platform “provides an easy-to-use and measurable tool for streamlining Xylem’s investment with one interface while maximizing the impact created for underserved communities of color across the U.S.”

CNote’s platform enables corporations and other institutional investors to contribute to racial and gender equity while generating returns on fixed income and cash allocations. It places money in CDFI loan funds and in depository products, such as money market accounts and CDs, from vetted FDIC- and NCUA-insured community development financial institutions (CDFIs), low-income designation (LID) credit unions and minority depository institutions (MDIs).

Funds deployed through CNote’s platform grow the deposit base of mission-driven banks and credit unions that serve low- and moderate-income people as well as Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities, allowing those institutions to improve their reach and service. CDFIs fund women- and minority-led small businesses, affordable housing and economic development. LID credit unions serve communities where most people have household incomes well below the national median. And MDIs are financial lifelines for communities of color.

CNote’s impact reporting highlights ESG’s social dimension

Apple, Netflix, Xylem and others  using CNote’s platform—including Mastercard and PayPal—receive quarterly impact reports showing how their dollars were deployed and how communities benefited. That is a significant advantage given the heightened attention to ESG reporting, Berman noted: “When companies activate their balance sheet to expand access and opportunities for communities of color and other underserved communities, they are authentically addressing the social dimension of ESG.”

Find out more about CNote’s platform and see illustrative beneficiaries here.

About CNote

CNote is a women-led impact platform on a mission to close the wealth gap through financial innovation. Using the power of technology and a community-first framework, CNote enables corporations and individuals to efficiently invest at scale in fixed income and time deposit products that advance economic equality, racial justice, gender equity and climate change initiatives. Platform users can track their impact via CNote’s quarterly reporting on the social benefits of their deposits and investments. A Certified B Corporation, CNote was a B Lab “Best for the World” honoree in 2019 and was named “Best Women-Owned Business” by the U.N. Women’s Empowerment Principles program in 2020.

Media Contact

Thinkshift Communications

Sarah Grolnic-McClurg | sarah@thinkshiftcom.com | Primary: 510-898-1837 | Mobile: 415-828-3143

CNote Expands Access to Capital for Community Financial Institutions With $25 Million From Apple to Support Communities of Color

March 5, 2022 // Oakland, CA // Today, CNote, an Oakland-based fintech, announced that Apple will use the CNote platform to deploy $25 million into underserved communities across the country.

Apple’s $25 million commitment is part of its broader Racial Equity and Justice Initiative, an effort to address systemic racism in America and expand opportunities for communities of color. The new funding builds on Apple’s previously announced commitments to expand economic empowerment and support entrepreneurs of color.

“We’re committed to helping ensure that everyone has access to the opportunity to pursue their dreams and create our shared future,” said Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives. “By working with CNote to get funds directly to historically under-resourced communities through their local financial institutions, we can support equity, entrepreneurship and access.”

“Corporations have an enormous opportunity to help communities across the U.S. thrive by changing the way they manage their cash reserves, and we’re excited to see Apple at the forefront of this emerging trend,” said Catherine Berman, CEO of CNote. “Through our platform, we have already started moving Apple deposits into low-income communities and communities of color.”

Initial deposits are already at work in communities

CNote has deployed an initial round of Apple deposits to mission-driven financial institutions, including ANECA Federal Credit Union in Louisiana; Bank of Cherokee County in Oklahoma; Carver State Bank in Georgia; Education Credit Union in Texas; First Southwest Bank in Colorado; Hope Credit Union, which serves Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee; Kaua‘i Federal Credit Union in Hawai‘i; Latino Community Credit Union in North Carolina; Legacy Bank in Missouri; Optus Bank in South Carolina; Self-Help Federal Credit Union, with locations in California, Illinois, Washington and Wisconsin; and VCC Bank in Virginia.

“Partnerships like the one we have with CNote and Apple are essential to our efforts to expand access to capital, as well as to financial products and services, in a historically underserved market,” said Susannah Plumb Scott, executive vice president at Bank of Cherokee County. The bank, formed in 1907 by a group of prominent Cherokee Nation members, invests 95% of deposits back into Cherokee County.

Eric Jenkins, president and CEO of Education Credit Union, founded by Amarillo schoolteachers in 1935, said deposits like Apple’s “allow ECU to serve more consumers and meet a broader range of needs.”

CNote’s platform provides insured deposits across a network of vetted mission-driven financial institutions

CNote’s platform fills a gap for corporate and other institutional investors that want to support financially underserved communities across the country while generating returns on cash allocations. CNote moves client deposits into FDIC- and NCUA-insured accounts across a wide network of mission-driven deposit institutions, including community development financial institutions (CDFIs), low-income designated (LID) credit unions, and minority depository institutions (MDIs).

Funds committed through the CNote platform increase the deposit base of mission-driven banks and credit unions that serve low- to moderate-income people as well as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) communities. These types of deposits help fuel affordable housing and small business loans, and provide a just alternative to predatory lending. Apple and other CNote clients—including Mastercard, Patagonia, PayPal and Netflix—receive quarterly impact reports that provide details on which institutions have received deposits and the populations benefiting from those investments.

Find out more about the CNote platform and see illustrative beneficiaries here.

About CNote

CNote is a women-led impact platform on a mission to close the wealth gap through financial innovation. Using the power of technology and a community-first framework, CNote enables corporations and individuals to efficiently invest at scale in fixed income and time deposit products that advance economic equality, racial justice, gender equity and climate change initiatives. As part of its offering, CNote delivers regular reporting on the social impact of deposits and investments made through its platform. A Certified B Corporation, CNote was a B Lab “Best for the World” honoree in 2019 and was named “Best Women-Owned Business” by the U.N. Women’s Empowerment Principles program in 2020.

Media Contact

Thinkshift Communications

Sarah Grolnic-McClurg | sarah@thinkshiftcom.com | Primary: 510-898-1837 | Mobile: 415-828-3143

Black Equity at Work Certification Program and CNote Partner to Unleash the Corporate Balance Sheet for Racial Equity

Management Leadership for Tomorrow joins with women-led impact investing platform to activate every aspect of corporate operations for racial equity, starting with the Fortune 500

November 2, 2021 // Oakland, CA // Management Leadership for Tomorrow and CNote today announced a new partnership that will help industry-leading employers deliver on their social justice commitments.

MLT’s Black Equity at Work Certification, co-developed with Boston Consulting Group, requires employers to pursue Black equity with the same rigor and results orientation they apply to other core business priorities. The certification, tied to a comprehensive three-year plan, focuses on three areas—people, purchasing and philanthropy. Participating employers receive benchmarks, best practices and insights on how to achieve racial equity in the workplace across five pillars:

1. Black representation at every level
2. Compensation equity
3. Inclusive, anti-racist work environment
4. Racially just business practices
5. Racial justice contributions and investments

Forty-five industry-leading employers have committed to the certification, including BlackRock, Cargill, and ViacomCBS.

Partnership with CNote Puts the Corporate Balance Sheet to Work for Racial Equity

Oakland-based CNote, a women-led Certified B Corporation, deploys corporate deposits and investments to its national network of community development financial institutions, low-income designated credit unions and minority deposit institutions. The company has helped corporations including PayPal and Mastercard move millions into underserved communities to advance economic inclusion and start to close the racial wealth gap.

Together, CNote and MLT will give corporations a comprehensive pathway to combining workforce action with Black-equity–focused corporate deposits and investments—at a time when corporations are looking for solutions and expertise to meet the commitments they’ve made to racial equity. The two organizations will collaborate on educating corporate partners, and investments and deposits made through CNote’s platform can earn points toward Black Equity at Work Certification.

“Our partnership with CNote is a natural complement to the Black Equity at Work Certification Program, allowing us to help committed corporations use their balance sheets to contribute to racial justice,” said Indy Adenaw, managing director of the MLT Black Equity at Work Certification Program.

Catherine Berman, CEO of CNote, commented, “MLT’s Black Equity at Work Certification is one of the most effective actions corporations seeking to drive greater racial justice can take. CNote’s ability to use the power of the corporate balance sheet to align around greater Black equity—while staying true to a corporation’s risk and return needs—creates an actionable and integral road map that complements MLT’s dynamic work.”

Peloton’s senior vice president of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Dr. Christal Morris, explained the value of the certification in an earlier announcement: “Partnering with MLT to achieve the Black Equity at Work Certification is our latest step to make sure all of our team members can bring their true, authentic selves to work. We’re excited to raise the bar and be part of a larger movement investing in Black equity.”

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About Management Leadership for Tomorrow

Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT) is a national nonprofit working to transform our country’s leadership pipelines and increase access to the American Dream. MLT, founded by John Rice, provides Black, Latinx, and Native American talent with the coaching, playbook and networks they need to excel in high-trajectory careers, secure economic mobility for their families and become high-impact senior leaders equipped to advocate for vulnerable communities. MLT also provides a comprehensive solution for institutions, which combines best-in-class recruitment, retention and diversity strategy offerings. Learn more at www.mlt.org.

About CNote

CNote is a women-led social enterprise on a mission to close the wealth gap through financial innovation. Using the power of technology and a community-first framework, CNote’s platform enables corporations, institutions and individuals to efficiently invest and deposit cash at scale in community financial institutions. CNote is a Certified B Corporation that has earned “Best for the World” honors from B Lab and was named “Best Women-Owned Business” by the United Nations’ Women’s Empowerment Principles program.

Media contacts

CNote:

Sarah Grolnic-McClurg, Thinkshift Communications | sarah@thinkshiftcom.com | office:  510-898-1837 mobile: 415-828-3143

Management Leadership for Tomorrow:

Simone Manee, Marketing & Communications Director | smanee@mlt.org | mobile: 434-327-7359

New CNote Research Delivers Insights from Entrepreneurs on Improving Access to Capital for Underserved Women of Color

By reimagining the lending process through an equity lens, lenders can make decisions that yield economic returns and have a significant social impact, says report.

October 20, 2021 // Oakland, CA // CNote, a women-led community investment platform with a mission of closing the wealth gap, today released new research conducted to fix a persistent problem: Women of color start businesses at a faster rate than anyone yet remain underserved by lenders. 

Redesigning Lending: Improving Access to Capital for Women of Color Entrepreneurs reports on research conducted by Impact Experience and funded by the Tarsadia Foundation under the umbrella of CNote’s Wisdom Fund. The fund funnels accredited investor capital into small business loans for women of color and aims to help lenders modernize lending programs using a human-centered design approach. 

The research findings reflect insights from BIPOC women entrepreneurs collected through survey responses from over 75 women, more than 40 hours of individual interviews, and a two-day convening of 20 women. 

Women identify major barriers to capital access

These racially diverse women business owners—66% Black, 28% Latina and 5% Asian or Pacific Islander—identified widespread barriers to capital access, including these key issues:

• 87.5% of respondents felt that race or gender bias contributed to how they were treated during the lending process.
• 69% of respondents needed working capital but were not able to find this type of loan product.
• A majority found the lending process convoluted and labor-intensive, and experienced drastic differences between lenders, significant application processing delays and high denial rates with no explanations. 

The way forward: how lenders can better serve this growing market

The researchers’ in-depth discussions with women about their lending experiences yielded recommendations in four areas for improving the process and enabling women entrepreneurs of color to build their businesses:

• Offer larger loans and more flexible loan terms, including credit lines for working capital.
• Revamp credit scoring to more accurately reflect creditworthiness—by considering rent and utility payments, lack of delinquencies and revenue under contract, for example. 
• Standardize loan applications across lenders to reduce the time and administrative burden of applying.
• Provide transparency in decision-making as well as post-lending resources, such as financial and leadership coaching, to increase the likelihood of business success. 

“This research highlights lenders’ opportunity to better meet the needs of these potential customers and contribute to thriving communities,” said Danielle Burns, vice president and head of Business Development at CNote. “If we can fund businesses led by women of color with the type of loans they actually need, that will jump-start wealth creation in places where it’s most needed.” 

Research partners center women’s experiences

CNote’s Wisdom Fund is a collaboration with community lenders that includes cataloging and leveraging research findings to improve the lending experience of BIPOC women business owners.

“We invested in the Wisdom Fund because of its community-driven approach to improving access to capital,” said Priya Bery, CEO of Tarsadia Foundation. “This study empowered women of color to tell us how small business lending programs are serving them, and we hope these findings will serve as a blueprint to address barriers to wealth creation that BIPOC women face.” 

Burns observed that the Wisdom Fund is attracting growing interest from corporations and other institutional investors, such as PayPal, that are focused on furthering racial and gender equity. “These investors are looking for measurable impact, and while we are delivering that now, we know that a lending process that better serves BIPOC women from start to finish is essential to closing the wealth gap.”

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About CNote

CNote is a women-led social enterprise on a mission to close the wealth gap through financial innovation. Using the power of technology and a community-first framework, CNote’s platform enables corporations, institutions and individuals to efficiently invest and deposit cash at scale in community financial institutions. CNote is a Certified B Corporation that has earned “Best for the World” honors from B Lab and was named “Best Women-Owned Business” by the United Nations’ Women’s Empowerment Principles program.

Media contacts

Thinkshift Communications 

Sarah Grolnic-McClurg | sarah@thinkshiftcom.com | (office) 510-898-1837 (mobile) 415-828-3143

CNote Celebrates Five Year Anniversary, Thousands of Jobs Created in Underserved Communities

Women-Led Community Investment Platform Has Helped Individuals, Institutions and Corporations Invest Millions in Equity and Inclusion

April 22nd, 2021 // Oakland, CA // CNote, a women-led community investment platform with a mission of closing the wealth gap, today celebrates its fifth year in operation. CNote partners with Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) and mission-driven deposit institutions, which are high-impact local lenders dedicated to delivering financial resources to underserved communities. Dollars invested and deposited on the CNote platform are deployed with these frontline lenders to fund women- and BIPOC-owned small businesses, affordable housing development, and further racial justice and economic development across the United States. 

Investments on CNote’s platform have created or maintained over 4,000 jobs. In the past 12 months over 40% of newly deployed capital has gone to women-led businesses and over 50% to BIPOC borrowers. CNote catalogs the on-the-ground impact of its community investments with regular quantitative impact reporting and by profiling the small businesses, people, and organizations that are positively impacted.

CNote’s long-term commitment to racial and gender equity investing earned it the Best Women-Owned Business Award from the U.N. Women’s Empowerment Principles and the firm has been recognized on the ImpactAssets 50 list showcasing top impact fund managers for two consecutive years. CNote is a Certified B Corporation, which means it meets rigorous social, environmental, governance, and community performance standards.

This logo, created for CNote’s five-year anniversary is comprised of photos of every success story we’ve profiled since 2016

In 2016, CNote launched The Flagship Fund, the first 100% CDFI-focused investment vehicle available to all investors with no minimum. Since then, CNote has introduced two new products: The Wisdom Fund, an investment vehicle for accredited investors designed to increase capital access and lending for women of color; and the Promise Account, a federally insured cash management solution that gives corporations and institutional investors a simplified way to deliver on DEI commitments by depositing cash for competitive returns and positive social impact. 

After launching with a retail product, CNote has moved to serve foundations and other institutional investors, and most recently to help corporations mobilize cash deposits and investments to improve their performance on ESG measures. In October of 2020, Mastercard expanded its relationship with CNote by committing $20M to the Promise Account to fund underserved communities and help women- and BIPOC-owned businesses. 

CNote CEO Catherine Berman said, “I’m proud of the team for what we’ve accomplished over these last five years, but given how challenging 2020 was for low-income people and communities of color, our mission of closing the wealth gap is more urgent than ever.” 

Berman added that “we’re most proud to say we’re aligned with CDFIs, which have acted as economic first responders throughout the pandemic. They are critical to getting investor capital authentically aligned behind community development that leads to lasting change. We look forward to supporting the CDFI industry and underserved communities for many years to come.” 

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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 increase 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.

Media contacts

Thinkshift Communications 

Christine O’Connor | christine@thinkshiftcom.com | 203.927.1753

WOMEN-LED FINTECH PLATFORM DEBUTS IMPACT CUSTOMIZATION SERVICE THAT LETS CORPORATE TREASURIES INVEST TO MEET DEI GOALS

• CNote’s enterprise-level, one-stop-shop service channels corporate capital into community development financial institutions and offers quarterly impact reporting
• New customization service responds to shareholder and employee demands for change while simplifying investments in Black-led CDFIs and underserved communities

Oakland, CA – CNote, a women-led fintech firm working to close the wealth gap for women and people of color, has launched a new customization service that allows CFOs and corporate treasury departments to invest in community development financial institutions selected to meet their particular diversity, equity and inclusion goals and improve their performance on ESG measures.

CNote can customize a portfolio of CDFI loan fund investments by region and focus. Treasury teams can choose to invest in Black-led CDFIs, for example, or CDFI loan funds focused on low-income women entrepreneurs or climate adaptation in disproportionately impacted communities. CNote then does all the work, funneling funds to mission-aligned institutions exactly when they need them.

According to Catherine Berman, CEO and co-founder of CNote, “With this new customization service, we’re giving treasury leaders an easy way to invest in support of their company’s social and environmental goals.”

“Corporations are facing mounting pressure as shareholders, employees and customers call on them to address racial, gender and community disparities. Investing corporate funds to specifically target impact goals is low-hanging fruit for business leaders looking to gain a competitive edge,” says Berman.

Unlocking CDFIs as an asset class: CNote connects the dots  

Black-led CDFIs remain underfunded, despite a wave of interest following last summer’s racial justice protests. The Hope Policy Institute found that support for minority-led CDFIs was declining: From 2014 to 2017, the assets of white-led CDFIs grew $21.8 billion (a 163% rise), while the assets of minority-led CDFIs grew just $682.5 million (13.6%).

Using technology and a proprietary underwriting process, CNote provides a frictionless way for corporations to invest in CDFIs, which are essential frontline resources for businesses and communities not served by big banks.

Individual CDFIs can’t always handle the amount of money a corporation seeks to invest, and it’s impractical for corporate treasury departments to handle diligence, deployment and reporting on investments in a large ecosystem of community institutions. CNote solves this problem by investing funds throughout its vetted nationwide network of CDFIs.

Benefits include impact reporting and talent recruiting and retention

Berman notes that impact reporting is a key piece of the puzzle for businesses, given a growing level of public scrutiny on impact claims. CNote provides quarterly impact reporting to share with all stakeholders.

She adds that CDFI investments can be a risk management strategy for companies. “Just as companies make gains from diversifying their boards, treasury departments can improve financial performance along with impact performance by diversifying their cash holdings and investments,” she says.

CNote can also work with corporate partners that want to help their employees make impact investments. Increasingly, says Berman, corporate leaders are seeing impact investments as an opportunity to attract and retain talented people who care deeply about racial justice and inclusion and aren’t satisfied with splashy CSR reports and a few community grants.

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.

When we launched the Wisdom Fund in 2019 as an investment vehicle that increases capital, access, and lending for businesses owned by women of color, no one was anticipating 2020, with its pandemic, political divisions, and socio-racial upheaval. Among 2020’s most poignant lessons, however, was one that inspired the fund: women of color don’t have equal access to opportunity in this country. That’s why the work we’re doing with the Wisdom Fund today is arguably more necessary than it was when we launched it two years ago. Therefore, in the spirit of Black History Month, not to mention Women’s History Month in March, we’d like to provide an update on the Wisdom Fund, including sharing the progress we’ve made, the lessons we’ve learned, and the work that remains.

A First-of-its-Kind Fund

If you’re unfamiliar with the Wisdom Fund, it’s an impact investing opportunity that we created in partnership with CDC Small Business Finance and four Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) in 2019 to funnel money from accredited investors — institutions, funds, foundations, family offices, and individuals — into business loans for low-to-moderate-income women, especially women of color. While we knew that women are the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs in the country, we also knew that women of color don’t have the same access, privilege, and opportunity as their white counterparts. Therefore, we wanted to create an innovative investment opportunity to address these disparities, fix these social injustices, and provide women of color with more access to capital and small business coaching.

Early Results

Through Q3 2020, The Wisdom Fund initiative has deployed 100% of capital to small businesses led by women of color. This lending activity has gone on to create or maintain over 225 jobs in communities across America. Further, the average loan size for program participants was right around $47,000. We’re excited to share these early results but have aspirations for the program, both around growing the amount of investor capital that’s committed to these under-funded borrowers and around the coaching services and changes, we hope to champion around the lending process for women of color entrepreneurs.

Providing more than capital: Funding Change

A key component of this initiative from the very beginning was to learn how we, as the financial services industry, can improve the lending process for women of color. For us, that meant taking a holistic approach to better understand how women of color are being treated, assessed, and evaluated from a risk perspective as it relates to lending.

Donica is the kind of entrepreneur the Wisdom Fund looks to support.

The Data Speak for Themselves — So Do Women

Thanks to our partners at ICA, an Oakland-based CDFI that invests in high-potential businesses, we’ve been able to do a historic, 10-year look back at women of color borrowers’ experience with lending. ICA’s preliminary analysis produced three key findings. First, women of color were not riskier borrowers than other demographics. ICA’s analysis shows that there was no statistically significant difference between the credit risk¹ among women of color and other groups of borrowers. Second, women were, on average, a lower credit risk than men: ICA found that the probability of defaulting on loans was between 2 to 4.5 percentage points lower for women than men. Lastly, despite those other two findings, our analysis also shows that women of color typically receive lower loan amounts than other borrowing groups, but are sometimes charged higher interest rates.

As we conduct additional research we hope to isolate causes for these disparate outcomes and work with our partners to change the lending process to address them. To that end, The ICA team is working to expand on the research and looking for additional CDFI partners to join the initiative by sharing lending data. They are hosting a webinar on February 18th for those interested in partnering with them.

These preliminary findings are demonstrative of a foundational goal of the Wisdom Fund: to collect borrower data on demographics, business characteristics, loan terms, performance metrics, default rates, missed payments, and more. Given that our CDFI partners, unlike traditional financial institutions, can collect this kind of lending data, we stand to build a unique data set based on historical performance that stands to inform mainstream lenders, shape the future of our industry, and create more opportunities to support women of color.²

Whereas we anticipate the data being able to speak for themselves, part of what we want to do going forward is to similarly give women of color borrowers the chance to speak for themselves: to share their stories, challenges, and successes. We can’t and don’t assume that we knew how women of color borrowers feel about the life cycles of their loans. Therefore, over the next five months, we’re taking a human-centered design (HCD) approach to better understand the human side of the data we’re collecting.

To do this, we’ve partnered with Impact Experience, an organization that works with businesses to help generate trust, think about strategic initiatives, and dive deep into biases and structural racism in the financial services space. Impact Experience is taking the lead on surveying between 50 and 60 women of color borrowers, half of whom are Wisdom Fund borrowers, to gain insights into the various ways that lenders can better serve them. Additionally, Impact Experience will survey 20 CDFIs to better understand the challenges that community lenders face when women of color come to them for lending. 

After Impact Experience completes its surveys, we’ll invite roughly 30 participants — including women of color borrowers and lenders — to a two-day, virtual experience where we’ll collectively take a deeper dive into the core challenges and opportunities around unlocking more capital for women of color. This will be a chance for these women to share their first-hand stories with us, including the good, the bad, and the ugly of our current lending practices. By the end of this virtual gathering, we want to not only identify the mechanisms for removing barriers for women of color to acquire loans but also create broader networks for these women so that they can grow both their wealth and their businesses. 

From start to finish, we anticipate this being a five-month process, and the final phase will include a report out of stories, insights, and solutions that we’ll share broadly with our peers across the financial services sector so that we can collectively create systemic change and unlock lending opportunities for women of color.

We know that change won’t happen overnight, but we also know that change won’t happen by itself. Therefore, as we continue to channel impact investment dollars into women of color-owned businesses through the Wisdom Fund, we, along with our partners, are equally committed to giving those same women the opportunity to have their voices heard and to share their struggles, successes, and ideas with us. After all, if we’re going to drive wealth creation for women of color in the United States, then we need to emphasize listening to, collaborating with, and learning from these same women of color borrowers as much as we can.

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This piece was authored by Danielle M. Burns, MBA, AIF®, VP of Business Development at CNote. She is also an internal champion of the Wisdom Fund and is leading the human-centered design work on this project.

CNote has updated the interest rates for two of our offerings. These changes will only apply to new investors, existing investors will remain at the rates reflected in their executed investment documents. 

These changes are a function of historically-low interest rates prevalent across financial markets and in response to feedback from our community-lender partners regarding capital costs and their ability to lend on various financing terms. 

It is our belief that these changes strike a strong balance between offering CNote investors competitive and impactful financial investments and assuring that our community-lender partners have a sustainable capital source that allows them to deliver on their promise of building a more inclusive and fair financial system for underserved communities and borrowers. 

What are the changes? 

CNote has made the following changes for prospective investors in these offerings: 

• The Flagship Fund rate is moving to 2.50% from 2.75%. 
• The Wisdom Fund is moving to 1.00% from 3.50%.  

Who are these changes applicable to?

These changes are only applicable to new investments. Existing investors with outstanding investments will not be impacted by these changes. If an existing investor initiates a new investment into a CNote product or rolls over an existing CNote investment upon maturity those investments would be at these new rates.

Why is CNote making these changes? 

The primary reason we are making these changes is to assure our community lender partners have access to sustainably-priced capital so they can provide financing to their communities on competitive terms and at rates that support their growth. We detail additional reasons for each offering below.  

Wisdom Fund 

The Wisdom Fund aims to empower and build wealth for female-BIPOC entrepreneurs through small business ownership. In the historically-low interest rate market and uncertain economic times, CNote wants to ensure that our community-lender partners are not lending to women-of-color borrowers at a higher rate than for other demographics. Doing so would directly contradict the objective of the offering and impair the ability of our community partners to deploy sustainable financing to those end borrowers. 

The move to 1.00% assures the downstream women-of-color borrowers have equal access to fair capital and supports the sustainability of our community-lender partners. 

In the long run, we believe this change is the correct one as it best aligns with our company’s mission of closing the wealth gap and this offering’s objective of supporting entrepreneurship by women of color across America. 

Flagship Fund

The Flagship Fund is a diversified CDFI investment that offers flexible liquidity and has a broad impact mandate. Over the last year, CDFIs have been highlighted and pursued by investors and philanthropic funders as an efficient and financially responsible tool to reach their impact goals. A change in suggested return to 2.5% is justified given the interest rate market overall and the recent funding dynamics in the CDFI industry. 

I have additional questions, who should I contact? 

Inquiries from institutional investors should be directed to info@mycnote.com.

For retail or existing investors, please contact support@mycnote.com. 

You can also contact CNote toll-free at: (800) 449-6275 

(Oakland, CA) (January 13, 2021) – We are thrilled to announce that Real Leaders has selected CNote as a 2021 Top Impact Company.

CNote was selected based on the calculated impact from our most recent B-Impact Assessment, most recent impact report, and other company financial statistics.

“These top impact companies prove that businesses can thrive by being a force for good’ said Mark Van Ness, Founder of Real Leaders. “They are the Real Leaders of the New Economy” added Van Ness.

The 2021 award winners include game-changers such as Tesla, Beyond Meat, Patagonia, and 147 other well-respected impact brands of all sizes and from a variety of industries. View the selected companies here.

“We feel honored to have been chosen through a rigorous selection process,” said Catherine Berman, CNote CEO. “Our long-term focus on closing the wealth gap by empowering investors to support the causes and communities that matter most to them, has been a huge part of achieving this award”.

A special ceremony will be held on January 27th, 2021 to honor the winners and will include key impact speakers featuring Seth Goldman, Chairman of Beyond Meat and a musical performance from Michael Franti, world-renowned musician and activist.

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? Learn more about CNote’s Impact Investments.

About Real Leaders

Real Leaders is the world’s first business and sustainable leadership magazine and serves a community of visionaries, collaborating to regenerate our world. Its mission is to inspire better leaders for a better world. Real Leaders is a Certified B-Corp and signatory in the United Nations Global Compact (an advocate for achieving the global goals for sustainable development). Real Leaders positions leaders to thrive in the new economy and to inspire the future. Visit www.real-leaders.com for more information.

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.

CDFIs have a strong history of providing economic resources to financially underserved communities across America, helping to create jobs, fund small businesses, and support affordable housing development.

Often, many of the success stories you hear about CDFIs relate to urban or rural development projects and small business lending.

This webinar will focus on CDFIs that have been formed specifically to serve the needs of their local indigenous communities, providing economic resources, coaching, and other support to increase economic mobility and resiliency.

You’ll hear from two experienced practitioners who have been working in these communities for decades. You’ll learn about the common challenges they face, the work they do, and how you can get involved in investing in and supporting their efforts!

Please join us for this hour-long webinar dedicated to CDFIs working to empower Native and Indigenous Communities across America.

You can watch using this link or via the youtube video below.

Click here to download the slides.

This presentation was co-hosted by:

This webinar is co-hosted by the First Nations Oweesta Corporation and the Native American Community Development Corporation Financial Services, Inc. (NACDC) Candide Group and CNote.

We’re proud to announce that CNote was listed as an Emerging Impact Manager on the 2020 Impact Assets 50 list of fund managers.

About The List

The ImpactAssets 50 2020 (IA 50), a publicly available, online database for impact investors, family offices, financial advisors and institutional investors that features a diversified listing of private capital fund managers that deliver social and environmental impact as well as financial returns.

To continue to shine a light on impact fund innovation, the IA 50 added a new Emerging Impact Manager category, which spotlights newer fund managers that demonstrate potential to create meaningful impact. The inaugural list includes 16 emerging fund managers across a variety of themes and geographies.

“With record applicants and assets under management, the IA 50 continues to reflect the rapid growth and interest in impact investing,” said Jed Emerson, ImpactAssets Senior Fellow, and IA 50 Review Committee Chair. “This year’s showcase includes eleven impact funds with more than $1 billion in assets under management. And to ensure we’re capturing the best future ideas, we’ve added emerging impact managers, who have the hunger, creativity and a willingness to explore alternatives that more seasoned fund managers may not.”

The IA 50 is the first publicly available database that provides a gateway into the world of impact investing for investors and their financial advisors, offering an easy way to identify experienced impact investment firms and explore the landscape of potential investment options.  The IA 50 is intended to illustrate the breadth of impact investment fund managers operating today, though it is not a comprehensive list.  Firms have been selected to demonstrate a wide range of impact investing activities across geographies, sectors and asset classes.

Additional coverage

• Impact Assets Press Release
• ImpactAlpha Coverage
• GreenMoney

The entire CNote team is proud to announce that Cat Berman, our brave and inspiring leader, was selected as one of ten innovators driving change in the financial services industry!

Read the full release below.

OAKLAND, Calif., February 13, 2020 (Newswire.com) –​​​​InvestmentNews has recognized Catherine Berman as a 2020 Icons and Innovators honoree. Catherine was chosen from several hundred nominations to make the list of 10 Innovators and one Icon, Jud Bergman, former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Envestnet.

“It is energizing to be recognized for our work unlocking the opportunity for foundations, institutions and individual investors to earn returns while investing in underserved communities across America,” Catherine said. She added, “I am honored to be among this select list of innovators who are driving positive change in the financial services industry.”

Each of the advisers and executives who made the fourth annual InvestmentNews Icons and Innovators list was chosen from a rigorous selection process designed to identify individuals who contributed profoundly and consistently to the advancement of the financial advice profession and for conceiving new ideas and tools that have propelled the industry forward.

“The 11 individuals recognized as this year’s Icons & Innovators have led significant changes that are transforming the financial advice industry,” said George Moriarty, Chief Content Officer of InvestmentNews. “We hope their stories will inspire others to bring forward the next big ideas.”

Catherine will officially receive the award at the InvestmentNews 2020 Innovation Summit and Awards Dinner on April 30 in New York City. The half-day Summit will include panel discussions, TED-style talks, and one-on-one interviews followed by an awards dinner gathering the industry’s biggest names and brightest minds.

InvestmentNews also recognized 18 firms as finalists in its Innovation Awards in six categories: educational materials, investing solutions, practice management, retirement solutions and adviser fintech, which has both small-firm and large-firm finalists.

“The 18 Innovation Award firm finalists are introducing creative and effective solutions to some of the industry’s most challenging questions,” said Mr. Moriarty. “As our profession continues to evolve, it is more important than ever to embrace the power of innovation.”

To learn more about Catherine Berman, the 2020 winners and the Innovation Summit, please go to https://iconsandinnovators.com/.

About InvestmentNews

InvestmentNews is the leading source for news, analysis, and information essential to the financial advisory community.

About CNote

CNote is an award-winning, first-of-its-kind financial platform that allows anyone to make money investing in causes and communities they care about. With the mission of closing the wealth gap, CNote directs every dollar invested toward funding female- and minority-led small businesses, affordable housing and economic development through its nationwide network of CDFI community lenders.

View Press Release