Community Development Venture Capital Alliance

Community Development Venture Capital Alliance (CDVCA) - Central Fund
330 Seventh Avenue, 19th Floor
New York, NY 10001
Tel. (212) 594-6747
Fax. (212) 594-6717
Email: dnovick@cdvca.org
Website: http://www.cdvca.org
Deborah Novick, Fund Manager

Established: 2002

Total Committed Capital: $5.75 million

Amount Invested: The Fund is nearing its first investment.

Geographic Focus: North America

Background
CDVCA's Central Fund developed out of CDVCA's mission to promote use of the tools of venture capital to create jobs, entrepreneurial capacity, and wealth to advance the livelihoods of low-income people and the economies of distressed communities. The Central Fund is the linchpin of those efforts. By providing a source of capital for CDVC funds that are typically undercapitalized and that often have a great deal of trouble raising sufficient capital to operate at an economically efficient scale and by providing important co-investment capital to allow CDVC funds to do larger deals and serve the full capital needs of their portfolio companies, the Central Fund greatly enhances CDVCA's ability to serve its members and fulfill its mission.

Social Mission
The Fund aims to invest in businesses, the growth of which will create good jobs and build wealth for low-income people. The portfolio of the Fund will be managed to benefit distressed communities and so that more than half of the jobs created go to people who had low-incomes (less than 80% of area median) before they took the jobs. The Fund will also seek other social returns, such as encouraging minority and women ownership, environmentally sustainable businesses, production of products useful to communities, and promotion of socially responsible business practices.

Investment Information
The Fund will consider investments in North American and in the future may consider investments outside North America. It is available to make two types of investments: Fund of Funds investments and Co-investment Fund investments. Fund of Funds investments will be made in CDVCA member funds that have missions of creating high-quality jobs and wealth that improve the lives of low-income people and benefit distressed communities. Co-investment Fund investments, as direct equity investments made with other funds, will be made in companies that meet CDVCA's financial and social criteria and will be made in any industry sector except real estate. Both types of investments have a minimum size of $250,000.