Colorado Enterprise Fund

To accelerate community prosperity by financing and supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses.

Since Colorado Enterprise Fund (CEF) began, we have been a CDFI focused on small business loans for low-income, minorities, low-wealth, and underserved areas. We help those that face barriers to accessing capital for a variety of reasons. In FY’21, to create a bigger impact, CEF created a fund specifically to make capital more attainable for black-owned businesses through a low-rate, low-barrier loan fund. In FY’22, CEF closed 79 loans for a total of $2,262,235 in loans to black-owned businesses. For three years prior to the Black Business Loan Fund (BBLF), CEF averaged 24 loans per year for black-owned businesses with a total average of $715K each year in capital approved. The new focus on the BBLF created a change in CEF’s percentage of loans to black-owned businesses from 11% to 27%.

One example of black entrepreneurs CEF has helped include Jackie & Ernest Williams from Williams Soul Food which is a catering and food truck specializing in Louisiana-style cuisine. CEF was able to help them with a $36K loan which also took advantage of our Transforming Safety loan which is designed to help those previously incarcerated find a path to entrepreneurship.

A second example is Sewer Experts, a division of Mustard Seed Construction, owned by Marisa Beaver. This black, woman-owned business was struggling with cash flow and was able to get a $51K loan from CEF and crucial PPP loans to help her sustain her business and even expand.