We meet entrepreneurs where they are
Since 2017, BII has deployed $18 million across New England through flexible debt and equity financing to businesses, cooperatives, and real estate projects.
Directly from Our Portfolio
Quality Interactions
Quality Interactions is an e-learning platform that provides cultural competency training for healthcare professionals to decrease health disparities. It helps healthcare providers improve the quality of patient care by helping them to recognize and address unconscious bias. Their platform enables providers to communicate effectively with patients of all cultural backgrounds, including people of color, immigrants, people whose first language is not English, and LGBTQI+ patients, as well as those who are uninsured.
Sign-Speak
Sign-Speak is an innovative technology company seeking to bridge the communication divide for the 48 million Deaf and Hard of Hearing (D/HH) individuals in the United States. Its technology tracks American Sign Language (ASL) users as they sign with a camera on a computing device and transcribes and translates in real-time to facilitate conversation with someone who only speaks English. This technology can also translate and transcribe back into ASL. The Sign-Speak founding team includes a deaf software engineer and has developed solutions for websites, in-person contact, and automated environments.
Somerville Community Corporation
Somerville Community Corporation offers services and leads community organizing that support low- and moderate- income residents to increase economic sustainability and civic participation. SCC partners with local developers, foundations, lenders, the City of Somerville, and community organizations, serving as a nexus for multi-stakeholder relationships.
Solomon Group
Is a strategic communications and consulting firm working with public and private initiatives that uses data to market clean energy programs to disadvantaged communities. Given their experience in the space, Solomon Group can provide data-driven insights on sub-segments of the population, with particular emphasis on historically disadvantaged communities.
Sunwealth
Sunwealth is a clean energy investment firm dedicated to finance high-performing commercial solar projects through the sale of investment products to accredited investors. Their goal is to accelerate capital into communities underserved by traditional solar financing. BII has made several investments in Sunwealth over the years out of the LLC, Fund I and Fund II.
Synergy Contracting, Inc
Synergy Contracting (Synergy) is a fully bonded, unionized, Latina, women-owned construction company specializing in Environmental Remediation, Demolition, and Cleaning Construction Services, headquartered in Boston, MA. In addition to the services provided, they offer accelerator programs to build knowledge and education in the construction space.
The Lazu Group
At the time of BII’s original investment, The LAZU Group was a technology-enabled DEI services firm that offers strategies for product development, marketing, talent recruitment and retention, and community engagement. They used a motivational-based approach designed with the principles of community organizing, traditional DEI, and mental health, to help people create better personal and professional connections, ultimately resulting in happier individuals and healthier organizations. The Lazu Group closed its line of credit with BII in 2025. The Lazu Group is an exited portfolio company from Fund I.
Thrive!
Thrive! is a SaaS platform that uses a proprietary algorithm to assess government performance on reducing racial disparities. They sell into municipalities and conduct an initial equity audit, using an algorithm that tracks spending on certain interventions by agency. Then they provide recommendations, based on their findings, that will improve the lives of BIPOC people.
TrillFit
Winner of Best of Boston, 2021, 2020, 2018 is a purpose-driven wellness business that is changing the face of boutique fitness. With the objective of seeing underrepresented communities become the face of health they are intentionally catering to the soon-to-be “new majority” by training and contracting with instructors that are also reflective of inner-city communities.
Valley Home Insulation
Valley Home Insulation offers residential insulation and weatherization services in Lawrence and the surrounding Merrimack Valley. Following the 2018 gas explosions, Columbia Gas offered 100% reimbursement for insulation and weatherization services on all homes it serves in the Merrimack Valley through the end of 2020. VHI leverages cultural competency and community presence to provide these services to low- and moderate-income residents of this region.
Waku
Waku is a gut healthy drink that is inspired on an ancestral recipe, “horchata lojana”, created in the Andes Mountains. Waku’s raw ingredients are sourced from indigenous farmers, bottled in New Hampshire and distributed in the Northeast Region of the United States.
Wash Cycle Laundry
WashyCycle is a commercial laundry company with locations in Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington DC, committed to creating living-wage jobs and second chances for people overcoming histories of incarceration,homelessness, substance use, long-term unemployment, use of public benefits, and more.
WeSpire
WeSpire was a Software-as-a-Service (“SaaS”) platform that utilizes behavioral science as well as social and game mechanics to design, run, and measure customized programs and actions for employee engagement spanning across sustainability, civic-service, wellness, and human resource functions. WeSpire’s platform measures business and environmental impact metrics and analytics in real time, and generates reports, allowing employees and managers to see the impacts of their actions. WeSpire joined Bonterra in 2023, expanding Bonterra’s suite of solutions of employee engagement.
Capital Good Fund
Capital Good Fund is a nonprofit and CDFI based in Rhode Island offering low interest loans to individuals for emergencies, immigration, and weatherization; creating pathways out of poverty; and advancing access to the green economy. BII Fund I provided a term loan in 2019 to support their Massachusetts expansion for their immigration and weatherization loans.
Coalition for Occupied Homes in Foreclosure
COHIF (now Boston Neighborhood Community Landtrust) , is a collective of members and partners working together to keep residents of forclosed occupied properites in their homes by providing resources, advocacy and longterm support. In 2018, BII Fund provided a loan to support the Community Stabilization Pilot Project, advancing crucial anti-displacement strategies in Boston.
Colorful Resilience
Colorful Resilience is an outpatient mental health services practice specializing in serving the BIPOC, LGBT+, immigrant, and first-generation communities, as well as their allies. The practice is distinguished by its commitment to cultural competency and its focus on employee well-being and professional development. Colorful Resilience provides a clear pathway for early practitioners, starting as interns and progressing towards training, certification, licensure, and potentially launching their own practice. The company views itself as a training facility and incubator for the mental health industry, which is known for high burnout and turnover rates. BII invested in Colorful Resilience in July 2025 through…
Done Good
DoneGood aspired to be the “Amazon of the new social impact economy” harnessing purchasing as a force for change, helping ethical consumers and companies find each other. DoneGood was a certified B Corp incubated at Harvard Innovation Lab. In 2017, BII Fund made a convertible debt investment to support the platform in its efforts to redirect consumer dollars toward businesses owned by people of color and women.
Dorchester Food Cooperative
The Dorchester Community Food Co-op is a community and worker-owned cooperative market that provides economic opportunity and healthy affordable food. The Co-op is a space for education and cultural activities, and serves as a dynamic center for healthy eating and sustainable living in Dorchester. In 2013, BII provided grant funding to support the completion of a feasibility study and in 2015 purchased Direct Public Offering shares.
Eastie Farm
Eastie Farm is a community-based non-profit focused on Climate Justice, Food Access, and building Community Resilience. They address these issues through creating green spaces throughout East Boston. With the help of neighborhood volunteers, they have transformed several vacant lots into community gardens. In 2021, Fund II provided a line of credit to Eastie Farm to finance grants and contracts from city and state agencies, as well as foundations.
Franklin Caraballo
Bookkeeper Franklin Caraballo LLC provides critical professional business consulting, business management, bookkeeping, and tax services to small Spanish-speaking businesses. Language is often a huge barrier for many startups, bodegas, and other businesses which can created a hesitancy in entrepreneurs to launch, grow, or expand their businesses. In 2021, BII made a loan for expanding the team and building out an online training platform.
Fresh Food Generation
Fresh Food Generation started its food truck business with an intention to serve healthy food in the low-income neighborhood of Boston. Today they are a restaurant, food truck and catering company. FFG combines New England ingredients with bold Caribbean and Southern flavors to create enticing locally sourced fresh food. In 2018, BII Fund provided a line of credit and convertible debt coupled with an innovative “self-liquidating equity” structure which allows management to buy back equity at fair and mutually agreed upon price.
Housing Corp of Arlington (HCA)
Housing Corporation of Arlington (HCA) is a well-established non-profit community development corporation dedicated to creating and preserving affordable housing in Arlington, Massachusetts. HCA operates comprehensive housing programs including affordable housing development and management, homelessness prevention services, and energy efficiency upgrades for low-income homeowners. The organization has built strong community relationships and successfully completed LIHTC deals throughout its history. In September 2025, BII provided subordinated debt financing to support HCA's acquisition of 59 affordable housing units at 840-846 Massachusetts Avenue and 1517 Newman Way, preserving critical Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing (NOAH) in a gentrifying area. This tenant-driven acquisition serves residents across…
Maven Construction
Maven Construction is a registered woman-owned, and minority-owned full-service general contracting firm that provides at-risk construction management services to municipal, institutional and private clients. In 2018, BII Fund provided project finance to support an energy efficiency project with Howard University.
MentorWorks
MentorWorks is a platform that helps to originate and facilitate Income Share Agreements (ISAs). They were among the first platforms to provide income-share based education financing coupled with career mentorship. In 2020, BII committed invested in MentorWorks through a special funding vehicle (SPV), enabling the company to fund the higher education of students, primarily of color, who are attending community colleges or enrolled in technical training programs in Boston.
Renew Energy Partners
Renew Energy Partners is a Boston-based energy efficiency project development firm that specializes in decarbonizing commercial buildings in New England. In 2014, BII joined as an anchor investor in Renew’s collaborative project with HEET, a local non-profit that focuses on bringing efficiency upgrades to underserved markets. The joint program brings upfront financing and project management to retrofit Greater Boston’s non-profit buildings and historic houses of worship to reduce energy costs and use across the sector.
Roundhead Brewing Co.
Roundhead Brewing is the first Latino-owned craft brewery in the Boston area. The brewery sells a variety of craft beers and fresh pizza in the taproom and serves as a community space, hosting events with local partners and musicians at the brewery and around Boston. Roundhead Brewing also supports its workers by creating career pathways and paying a living wage, instead of sub-minimum, tipped wages. In 2021, Fund I provided a term loan as part of a larger equipment financing facility in partnership with RSF Social Finance to purchase electric brewing equipment.
TARTTs Day Care
At the time of BII’s original investment, TARTTs Day Care was family-owned business that provided quality childcare services for children ages two months to five years. Founded by African-American nurse Bessie Tartt Wilson in 1946, the company was run by second, third, and forth generation family members whose aim was to provide a high-quality, well-rounded curriculum that enriches its children’s and families’ lives. TARTTs was acquired by a competitor in 2024 who retained all existing employees and is carrying forward TARTTs’ legacy. In 2019, Fund I made a loan for operational expenses of establishing a new center.
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