The debt funding forms part of a broader Fintech COVID-19 Response Initiative led by impact investment fund Community Investment Management.
Camino Financial, a Fintech that provides affordable loans to small businesses, announced raising debt funding to lend to underserved Latinx- and Undocumented-owned businesses in Colorado. The debt funding will come from San Francisco-based impact investor, Community Investment Management (CIM).
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“As we approach the end of the PPP loan program, we’re seeing the majority of the funds disproportionally left behind black- and brown-owned businesses,” said Sean Salas CEO of Camino Financial. “With the uncertainty of the effectiveness of another stimulus round, Camino Financial is proud to partner with CIM in effort to deploy alternative sources of private capital to help underserved communities that largely contribute to the economy as a whole.”
Camino Financial has built a database and AI-driven credit underwriting model to fund the underserved Latinx business community at lower rates and better terms compared to market benchmarks. In particular, Camino plans to extend these funds to undocumented-immigrants who currently do not have access to government relief funds.
The initial focus of the initiative will be on underserved small businesses in Colorado, although CIM envisions this partnership as the first stage of a broader Fintech COVID-19 Response Initiative expected to scale at a national level across many underserved demographics and best-in-class FinTech partners.
“We are excited to partner with Camino Financial, which reaches so many of the small businesses we want to serve with this initiative. The economic fallout of COVID-19 has created an unprecedented crisis and disproportionately affected Latinx and undocumented business owners,” said CIM Managing Partner Jacob Haar. “Fintech lenders like Camino Financial offer the potential to act more quickly than traditional lenders through a fully digital process to reach underserved borrowers at scale. By partnering with Camino Financial, we will get capital to underserved small businesses quickly and efficiently so they can keep themselves afloat.”
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