Small businesses, with funding requirements under $2.5 million, represent the economic backbone of our communities. Supporting growth and the creation of jobs with upward mobility within these businesses is vital for low-income workers.
Greenline Community Ventures, a Colorado CDFI and national CDE, used NMTCs to establish a “grassroots” Small Business Capital Fund designed specifically to help create low-income community jobs by funding high-impact, cash-flow-challenged small businesses. The Fund’s mission is to better connect low-income community residents with the small businesses that represent two-thirds of America’s job growth.
Rocky Mountain Instrument Co. (RMI) is a minority-owned manufacturer of optics coatings and assemblies for laser and imaging applications. The business serves defense, industrial, medical, and semiconductor markets. RMI provides technical training to unskilled, low-income community workers in-house, and over half of its employees are minorities.
Like many small businesses, RMI needed additional capital to produce an inventory for existing orders and buy the equipment for a new production line. RMI had exhausted cash reserves and was unable to secure a traditional loan to support its growth plans. Instead, it was forced to use equipment vendor lease financing with an effective interest rate exceeding 40 percent.
Greenline used its NMTC-supported Small Business Capital Fund to deliver a $1.5 million subordinate business loan. The loan allowed RMI to expand product offerings and hire 10 additional technology workers from the low-income community. Three of these workers were previously unemployed. According to Calvert Foundation, the loan was “an important trigger for near-term growth and job creation that will eventually lead to additional capital from traditional banks and private equity.”
The Small Business Capital Fund served as a template for Greenline’s Covid-19 Emergency Microloan Program, which has helped over 25 Colorado small businesses continue operations and retain employees through the current pandemic.