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
EmVision Productions
EmVision Productions creates video content that helps clients communicate their organization’s social impact. Co-founder Tariana V. Little holds a DrPH from Harvard, focusing on communications and innovation and this expertise informs their Social Impact Storytelling™ framework. Their clients include nonprofits, social enterprises, government agencies, and corporations.
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.
Beantown Builders
Beantown Builders is a Brockton-based, Black-owned general contracting firm that specializes in residential remodeling projects in the Greater Boston area. The company works with first-time homebuyers who take 203K loans to remodel the homes, which are often distressed properties. Their work makes home ownership and home improvement accessible to more families.
Five Start Plating
Five Start Plating (FSP) provides metal finishing services (anodizing, hard coat, chromate conversion, zinc plating and powder coating) to commercial sheet metal fabricators and machine shops serving a variety of industries including medical, industrial, telecommunications, electronics, defense /aerospace and food services. It is located in Lawrence, and provides competitive job opportunities to the local community.
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.
All In Energy
All In Energy is a Boston-based nonprofit organization that seeks to accelerate an inclusive, clean energy economy for underserved communities in Massachusetts. They are also increasing energy sector job opportunities for diverse talent through their internship program with local universities and community colleges.
Futuro Media Group
Description: Futuro Media Group creates multimedia content for and about underrepresented communities in an increasingly diverse world. Founder Maria Hinojosa is an award-winning news anchor and reporter who has covered America’s untold stories for over two decades.
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.
CareAcademy
CareAcademy provides professional and family caregivers with high-quality online training classes to help deliver the best care to older adults with the support, guidance and compassion needed to improve their quality of life. The platform makes it easier for caregivers to upskill and continue their education to better serve clients and advance their careers. Co-founders Helen Adeosun and Dr. Madhuri Reddy are committed to serving caregivers who, like themselves, are often women of color and immigrants.
Hillside Harvest
Hillside Harvest is a Caribbean-American natural condiment brand that sells at regional grocery stores, local farmers markets, direct-to-consumer on their website, and even at Fenway Park! Hillside Harvest has developed three hot sauce flavors and two Jamaican jerk marinades. Founder Kamaal Jarrett’s vision was to create a brand that would bring the Caribbean flavors of his heritage out of the specialty international markets and into mainstream supermarket aisles.
Caribbean Integration Community Development (CICD)
Caribbean Integration Community Development (CICD) is a non-profit housing and community development organization that creates and maintains affordable housing in areas of Boston with large numbers of people of Caribbean descent. The organization’s first affordable housing development is Cote Village in Mattapan, which will be permanently affordable and meet LEED Silver Sustainability Standards.
MathTalk
MathTalk is a community-focused education technology public benefit corporation based in Cambridge, Mass. Using playful installations, technology and books, MathTalk promotes early math and language development among children. It uses the latest scientific research on cognitive development and is rooted in the cultures of local communities of color.
Casabe Fruit Store and Delicatessen
At the time of the original investment, Casabe was an alternative to the traditional bodegas of Lawrence, offering fresh and durable offerings, with conventional and organic options that would accept payments from Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) cards. In 2023 Casabe opened a second location at Lawrence General Hospital, which has now become their primary location.
Meetcaregivers, Inc.
Meetcaregivers connects families seeking at home care providers with pre-screed and qualified caregivers using technology enabled services to make the process safe and easy for families and clinicians. Meetcaregivers’ technology uses a match feature algorithm to ensure the right fit for client and clinicians. BII has made an investment in Meetcaregivers out of both Fund I and Fund II.
Cero Cooperative Inc
CERO is a worker-owned cooperative that collects commercial compost in the greater Boston area and creates business ownership and earning opportunity for the people of color among the working-class community. CERO's waste separation system increases reclamation and sale of clean paper, plastics, metals, waste vegetable oil and organic food waste, reducing customer trash sent to landfill and incinerators by 50 percent or more. This investment was done in collaboration with Cooperative Fund of New England to provide early stage start up capital
Nuevo Dia ADHC
Nuevo Día is a Latino- and woman-owned facility that seeks to help low-income seniors and disabled people in Boston remain as independent and as healthy as possible in a culturally competent environment. The vision of this organization is to be the leading Adult Day Health program serving the Latino community in Greater Boston.
ChopValue Boston
ChopValue Boston is a manufacturer of custom furnishings and architectural features made from recycled chopsticks. ChopValue’s business model exemplifies the concept of the circular economy: chopstick waste is recycled, converted to a useful good at a local microfactory, then purchased by regional customers. CEO Elaine Chow focuses on hiring young adults facing barriers to employment, including returning citizens.
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.
Cooperative Fund of the Northeast
The Cooperative Fund of New England (CFNE) is a community development loan fund that facilitates socially responsible investing in cooperatives, community-oriented nonprofits, and worker-owned businesses in New England and New York. CFNE provides financial products, business assistance, and investment opportunities that promote socially conscious enterprise. Boston Impact Initiative is an investor in CFNE’s Social Investment Fund, as well as a frequent co-investor in direct lending to cooperatives.
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.
Democracy Brewing
When BII invested in Democracy Brewing, they were a small worker-owned start up brewery with a tasting in South Boston. Today they continue their worker owned model and have a tap room and restaurant in Downtown Boston.
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.
El Planeta
El Planeta is an integrated Latinx news company producing content and events relevant to the Latinx community in Massachusetts and beyond. It reaches more than 200,000 people per week through print, television and digital media. It became a crucial community resource during the COVID-19 pandemic, forging new partnerships and growing its readership to 500,000. With more than 10 countries represented on its staff, El Planeta is an essential link between organizations, companies and government, and the Latinx community, and a key source of news coverage of underrepresented communities.
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.
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.
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.
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Just and Sustainable Economy
Invest in BII Fund II and support the growth of enterprises, building a more equitable future.