From individual investors to corporate treasury, a decade of connecting capital with communities
Ten years ago, CNote set out to show that financial goals and community impact could advance together. The company was co-founded in 2016 by Catherine Berman and Yuliya Tarasava, two seasoned financial executives determined to rethink how capital works in the modern economy.
Combining decades of financial leadership, they built CNote to expand economic opportunity for small businesses, nonprofits, and low-income communities often overlooked by traditional finance. For Catherine Berman, CNote’s CEO and co-founder, the first decade is the foundation for a broader ambition:
“Ten years ago, we founded CNote with a conviction to expand access to capital and opportunity for those often left behind by traditional finance. More than $1 billion mobilized into local communities gives that conviction real weight. Behind that capital are entrepreneurs building businesses, families seeking affordable homes, and local non-profits supporting communities they know deeply. This milestone carries both pride and responsibility. We’ve spent a decade building connections between investors, corporate cash, and community finance. Our ambition for the next decade is to make those connections an enduring part of how America puts its capital to work.”
Community financial institutions, including community development financial institutions (CDFIs), offered a way to pursue that ambition. They were financing entrepreneurs, affordable housing, and community facilities, combining financial discipline with knowledge of their communities. CNote began building ways for more investors to participate in that work.
The company started with fixed-income investments through CDFI loan funds. As it grew, the founders’ interest in cash became another avenue for expanding participation, bringing insured deposits and, eventually, corporate treasury teams into CNote’s story.
A New Way for More People to Invest
Early interest gave the company a start. By September 2017, an initial test with accredited investors had attracted more than $9 million in commitments. CNote then opened its Flagship Fund offering to the general public, including non-accredited investors, with no minimum investment.
That opened participation to people who wanted their investments to reflect their priorities and values but needed a place to begin. They could start with a small amount, as little as $1, earn a potential return, and receive reporting about the work their investment supported.
As CNote developed, it created more ways to direct capital. The Wisdom Fund, introduced in 2019, focused on expanding financing for women entrepreneurs. Investors could choose to support institutions working on filling a specific gap in access to business financing.
But fixed-income investments could only meet some clients’ needs.
CNote saw an opportunity beyond investment portfolios. Companies and institutions held significant cash balances that served different purposes and required a different financial structure. Those dollars, too, could help support community finance.
Making Community Finance Work for Corporate Cash
CNote launched Impact Cash® in 2020, helping depositors align financial returns with their values through FDIC/NCUA-insured deposits. The platform opened access to community banks and credit unions across the country that depositors might otherwise have struggled to find or reach. In fact, 87% of institutions in CNote’s impact depository network report that CNote brought them their first impact-aligned deposit.
For corporate treasury teams, Impact Cash® brought together competitive returns, flexible liquidity, and the ability to direct deposits toward communities and causes that mattered to their organizations. Clients could choose liquidity options suited to their cash needs and target geographies or priorities such as affordable housing, small business growth, and climate resilience.
CNote’s technology made that approach manageable across a nationwide network. The platform coordinates deposit allocation, monitoring, and consolidated reporting, giving treasury teams access to multiple community banks and credit unions through one relationship, without any trade-offs. This made it easier for treasury teams to diversify deposits across community banks and credit unions without the work of establishing and overseeing each banking relationship separately.
By September 2022, Apple, Mastercard, Netflix, and PayPal had adopted CNote’s platform. The company reported over $300 million across cash and fixed-income committed investments at the time. A business that had opened community investing to individuals was now also serving corporate treasury teams at scale.
Yuliya Tarasava, CNote’s co-founder and COO, reflects on what has driven CNote’s growth over the past decade:
“CNote’s growth has always been rooted in understanding both sides of the equation: what investors and institutions need from their capital, and what community finance organizations need to serve their communities. Our role is to bring those needs together, creating opportunities for capital to generate both financial returns and meaningful community impact. Ten years later, our technology allows us to make those connections at scale, but technology is only part of the story. Just as important are the relationships we’ve built and the trust we’ve earned with our clients and community finance partners. That trust is the foundation of our success and what will continue to drive our growth.”
As CNote’s relationships grew, so did the ways clients could connect their financial decisions with their priorities. Climate Cash™, introduced in April 2024, connects deposits with mission-driven banks and credit unions offering financing for climate resilience initiatives.
Today, CNote gives institutions and individuals a way to align financial performance with support for their communities. More than $1 billion has been deployed to mission-driven community financial institutions through CNote since the company’s inception.
The Next Decade of Community Finance
CNote’s first decade illustrates what can happen when investors, depositors, and community financial institutions have a simpler way to work together. The next chapter is about making those connections more accessible and more enduring.
Where capital is invested and deposited helps shape what gets built, which businesses grow, and who has access to opportunity. Ten years in, CNote is focused on making community finance a more natural part of financial decision-making.
Disclosure: CNote Group, Inc. (“CNote”) is not a bank, credit union, registered investment adviser, or broker-dealer and does not provide legal, financial, accounting, or tax advice. CNote offers promissory notes (“Notes”) to eligible investors pursuant to Regulation A or Regulation D under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. Notes involve risk, including potential loss of principal, and are not bank deposits or insured by the FDIC, NCUA, or any government agency. Separately, deposits placed through CNote’s Impact Cash® program are FDIC or NCUA insured, subject to applicable coverage limits and the terms of the Impact Cash® agreements.
