Citi Launches $150 Million Impact Investing Fund
January 17 2020 - 8:04AM
Business Wire
Citi Impact Fund Will Make Investments in
Double Bottom Line Startups With an Emphasis on Women and Minority
Entrepreneurs
Citi announced today the launch of the $150 million Citi Impact
Fund that will make equity investments in “double bottom line”
private sector companies that have a positive impact on society.
Citi will invest its own capital in U.S.-based companies that are
applying innovative solutions to help address four societal
challenges:
- Workforce Development – solutions that train and connect people
to careers.
- Financial Capability – solutions that increase access to the
financial system.
- Physical & Social Infrastructure – solutions that improve
an individual’s way of life through housing, healthcare and
transportation.
- Sustainability – solutions that address issues related to
energy, water and sustainable production.
“It takes companies of all sizes to address the challenges our
society faces today,” said Citi CEO Michael Corbat. “While
Citi’s global footprint and scale allow us to use our balance sheet
to play an important role, smaller, newer, ‘double bottom line’
companies play an equally important role in driving change.”
This is the largest fund of its kind to be launched by a bank
using its own capital. Investments, which could be as high as $10
million, will primarily be made in companies that have demonstrated
proof of concept, built an existing customer base, secured prior
rounds of funding and exhibited the potential for scale in multiple
markets. A portion of the fund is designated for earlier stage seed
investments.
Citi will actively seek opportunities to invest in businesses
that are led or owned by women and minority entrepreneurs. As part
of that commitment, the seed funding will be allocated exclusively
to investments in businesses led or owned by women and
minorities.
“The gender and ethnic gap in the startup world is very real,
with reports showing a small fraction of venture capital funding
being allocated to women and minority owned startups,” said Ed
Skyler, Executive Vice President, Global Public Affairs at
Citi. “Our intention is to not only help these businesses scale
and thrive but to also shine a light on the investment
opportunities among this pool of often overlooked, high potential
entrepreneurs.”
Citi’s approach to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)
includes executing a business model that adds value to society
through its products, catalyzing innovation through strategic
philanthropy and taking a stand on issues that matter. This fund
will complement Citi’s existing efforts, with the goal of achieving
financial returns while making a positive societal impact. The
focus areas above are areas where Citi has experience through its
philanthropy, business transactions and its own operations and
advocacy.
- Since 2014, Citi Foundation's “Pathways to Progress” initiative
has connected hundreds of thousands of young people around the
world to jobs, paid internships, workforce training and leadership
development. This work is implemented in conjunction with community
organizations and municipal leaders and leverages the time and
talents of thousands of Citi employee volunteers.
- Through the “City Accelerator,” a collaboration between the
Citi Foundation and Living Cities, the cities of Pittsburgh, St.
Paul, San Francisco and Washington, DC explored innovative
practices aimed at closing the funding gaps in their city
infrastructure plans, with particular attention to projects that
have a positive economic impact on low-income residents. For
example, the City Accelerator helped Washington, DC create an
actionable plan for its initiative to convert 75,000 of the city’s
streetlights to cheaper, energy-efficient LED technology, and
install a Wi-Fi access platform to improve wireless access to the
public.
- Citi partners with other organizations to expand access for
early-stage financing to companies that are addressing community
challenges. For example, Citi, OPIC and the Ford Foundation
recently launched a $100 million loan guarantee facility that will
enable Citi to provide early-stage financing in local currency to
companies that expand access to products and services for
low-income communities in emerging markets.
- Citi has been helping to drive sustainable business practices
in the finance sector for more than two decades, from innovations
in sustainable finance to environmental and social risk management
to climate risk assessment. For example, as part of our $100
Billion Environmental Finance Goal, Citi facilitated the largest
financing package in the global renewable sector for a greenfield
UK offshore wind farm located in the southern part of the North
Sea, which supplies clean energy to more than 1 million UK
homes.
To learn more about Citi’s efforts around the world, visit
http://citi.com/citizenship/.
Citi
Citi, the leading global bank, has approximately 200 million
customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries and
jurisdictions. Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments
and institutions with a broad range of financial products and
services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and
investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services, and
wealth management.
Additional information may be found at www.citigroup.com |
Twitter: @Citi | YouTube: www.youtube.com/citi | Blog:
http://blog.citigroup.com | Facebook: www.facebook.com/citi |
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/citi.
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Jennifer Lowney, +1 (212) 793-3141 jennifer.lowney@citi.com
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