The Oakland Black Business Fund Launches New Investment Platform

The Oakland Black Business Fund has launched a new investment platform to support Black-owned businesses. The platform will include a $1 billion investment in Black entrepreneurs and a $10 million relief fund to help Bay-area businesses that have been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. The relief fund will help to stabilize more than 500 Black businesses in Oakland through technical assistance grants. With these relief funds, businesses will be able to both scale their business and acquire real estate.

The platform is an example of the industry’s evolution to adopt more diversity both at the corporate level and within investment activity. Diversity has come slowly to the industry, but the Oakland Black Business Fund is a perfect example of the recent strides forward. The fund launched in June 2020 by Elisse Douglass and Trevor Parham, experienced impact investors, entrepreneurs and real estate developers.

The commercial real estate industry has historically been negligent in adopting diverse investment and hiring policies. A report from Bella Research Group and the Knight Foundation called The Diverse Asset Management Project Firm Assessment studied 889 real estate investment firms, and found that women owned only .7% of businesses and minorities owned only 2% of businesses. In addition, Harvard Business School and Bella Research analyzed the Prequin database, which includes 967 real estate investment firms, and found that women own only 17 firms and minorities own only 21 firms, representing only 5% of the total market. In terms of real estate under management, women and minorities represent even lower numbers, with women accounting for .8% of the market and minorities accounting for 1.2% of the market.

In addition to ownership, access to capital is also a significant issue for these companies. Data shows that Black business people receive only 2% of all SBA loans. In addition, The Brookings Institution conducted a Small Business Credit Survey in 2018, and found that Black founders receive only 1% of venture capital and large banks approve only 29% of loan requests for Black business owners. By comparison, banks approve 60% of loan requests from white owners.

The new investment platform from the Oakland Black Business Fund will help to ease the systemic bias in the capital markets and provide more access to capital for Black business owners. The platform intends to raise $1 billion in capital for deployment by 2022. To achieve its fundraising goals, the fund will pair Black businesses with Black technical assistance providers, investors and technology companies. Specifically, it will focus on brick-and-mortar businesses in the Black community, and it will infuse capital to stabilize the both the businesses and the underlying real estate.

This is the only Black-led investment platform that provides business grants and investments to address these systemic inequities. It is currently seeking investors and corporate partners for their next fundraising milestone at the close of 2020.