Gardner Capital, a private equity firm and alternative investment platform specialising in multifamily housing and renewable energy development and investment, is partnering with Kiva through Gardner Capital’s GCRE Upward Mobility Fund to accelerate minority-led small business access to finance in Texas.
The partnership will initially focus on supporting BIPOC small business owners in the Dallas and Houston markets, and provide a revolving fund to match loans raised on Kiva’s crowd-funding platform – both increasing the total funding available and accelerating the speed of funding loans for entrepreneurs.
“We are truly thankful for the opportunity to begin our partnership with Kiva through our initial loan matching fund – this is just the start of what we expect to be a truly long term partnership and one that we can grow substantially with additional funds in the coming years,” says Michael Gardner, Founder of the GCRE Upward Mobility Fund and CEO of Gardner Capital. “We are committed to providing additional funding for new loan matching programs with Kiva on an annual basis.”
This recent commitment from the GCRE Upward Mobility Fund is a part of Gardner Capital’s broader commitment to provide more than USD5 million in capital to support upward mobility in financially excluded or historically underserved communities through a variety of programs and partnerships including direct equity investments, venture and seed capital, low interest soft funding, grants, and other funding.
