The Schultz Family Foundation—founded by Sheri Schultz and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz—has announced a $10 million investment in C2FO, a financial technology company, to expand access to working capital for minority- and women-owned businesses.

The investment was made through the foundation’s Entrepreneurs Equity Fund and will be leveraged by C2FO to expand its funding capacity with Community Investment Management, an impact investment firm, enabling C2FO to deliver an additional $100 million in loans to historically marginalized communities where access to working capital, particularly access to competitively priced credit with flexible terms, has limited the growth of minority- and women-owned businesses. In 2022, C2FO’s platform provided more than $4.7 billion in funding across the United States.

"Providing working capital to help diverse businesses meet customer demand and scale has enormous potential to be a powerful economic catalyst for the country as a whole and historically marginalized communities in particular,” said Howard Schultz.

“We know that when businesses have equitable access to the capital they need—when a financial system is truly inclusive—we all win,” said C2FO founder and CEO Alexander Kemper. “Our partnership with the foundation will increase the number of loans we are able to give, supporting even more businesses than ever with easy, equitable, and flexible access to capital."

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Fat Camera)