If you were to ask David Taliaferro’s six-year-old son what his dad does, he would answer by saying his dad makes really good breakfast and goes to work everyday in a building that has really good mints. They’re just Life Savers, but to a six-year-old it’s the little things that make what his dad does…
Read MoreIn an effort to better support entrepreneurs in Louisville and Southern Indiana, Access Ventures is excited to announce Render Capital, a new $15 million regional fund focused on providing early-stage risk capital for local entrepreneurs. We envision a robust and thriving regional economy where entrepreneurs see Louisville and Southern Indiana as a place they can…
Read MoreAccess Ventures invests nationally, we care about innovation and creating a more inclusive and creative economy everywhere. That said, our office sits on a street corner in a neighborhood in Louisville, KY, the city that we all live in and love. As an organization, we’ve always balanced our work nationally with our local programs and…
Read MoreMobileServe isn’t just a company that streamlines volunteer tracking, it’s a company that puts service towards others at the core of their business. Access Ventures started working with MobileServe over four years ago. From what started as a small sized loan through Kiva to a direct investment into the company’s seed round, we’ve had the…
Read MoreCurrent models of funding new businesses often do not meet the needs of regional entrepreneurs. The funding landscape in Silicon Valley may work for Silicon Valley but that same model, when applied to other cities across the country fails to respond to the financial needs of companies that don’t see hockey stick growth or an…
Read MoreIn 2015, we launched a new access to capital product called The Growth Loan aimed at funding small businesses that cannot access capital through traditional underwriting methods. The Growth Loan provides up to $35,000 in funding and is character-based, not credit-based. Over the last four years, we have been able to fund 31 small businesses…
Read MoreThe sheer volume and scale of money in the venture capital space has roughly tripled over the past 15 years. It’s a trend reflective of the growth in the entrepreneurship space overall, as well as the result of an enormous amount of wealth existing in a small slice of the economy. Between 1990 and 2014,…
Read MoreIn our most recent white-paper resource, we dive deep into tackling the subject of alternatives to equity for small businesses and entrepreneurs. The following is an excerpt from that white-paper. If you would like to learn more about alternatives to equity then please consider downloading our free resource here. Evolution of Capital The widest category…
Read MoreAt the heart of the Access Ventures story is access to capital. While our work has expanded, both philosophically and geographically, our Access to Capital initiative is still intrinsic to our mission, creating equitable business opportunities for individuals, businesses and communities. Particularly for entrepreneurs in rural or disadvantaged areas, finding the funds to start or…
Read MoreEntrepreneurship is part and parcel to the American dream, yet in many communities finding the necessary capital to launch and grow a small business is harder than it should be. Unfortunately, our current financial system is optimized to provide larger amounts of capital to businesses with the most collateral and years in experience. The wealth…
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