Founders First Capital Partners, a San Diego, CA-based revenue-based finance and advisory support investment platform for underserved small businesses, held the initial close for a $9m Series A financing.
The round was led by The Rockefeller Foundation and the Surdna Foundation with participation from Kauffman Foundation through the Capital Access Lab Fund at ImpactAssets, LivingCities Blended Catalyst Fund, Spring Point Partners, The Impact Seat and Lindmor Foundation.
The company intends to use the funds to accelerate the deployment of its $100m credit facility from Community Investment Management to fund 400 companies and expand into new regions across the United States.
Led by Kim Folsom, Founder and CEO, Founders First Capital Partners focuses on helping small businesses led by diverse* and disadvantaged business owners located in low to moderate income areas less connected to the traditional funding networks of Silicon Valley and New York City. The Company combines an accelerator model—which includes educational curriculum and expert coaching —alongside direct funding to enable small businesses to grow and scale. Its proprietary business accelerator programs, learning platform, and growth methodologies transition underserved service-based businesses into $5M to $50M recurring revenue, tech-enabled companies while providing, high-yield investments for fund limited partners (LPs) that perform like bonds but generate returns on par with equity investments. Each year, the company works with hundreds of entrepreneurs— and offers 3 cohort programs through our Founders Business Growth Bootcamp and 4 cohorts through our FastPath Funding Growth Experience program. Founders First has supported over 400 companies in the past five years, helping them achieve an average of 25% year over year growth.
* Diverse founders are defined as those companies led by women, military veterans, LGBTQ+ and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) founders.
FinSMEs
12/03/2021