Render Capital
A $15 million regional investment strategy focused on providing early-stage risk capital for entrepreneurs built from years of experience and study in entrepreneurial ecosystem development.
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An Overview
Every business needs capital to start, grow, and succeed. The average entrepreneur needs a minimum of $25,000 to start and 43% needed additional funding to grow their business. While ultimate success depends upon value proposition, 82% of failed startups site cash flow issues as a condition for closure. The root cause of the problem is systemic and institutional barriers to traditional financing which make capital elusive for most entrepreneurs.
More than 80% of startup capital comes from entrepreneurs and their network of relationships, which acts as a systemic barrier for low-to-medium income households experiencing severe credit constraint and historic wealth inequality. Women and minority entrepreneurs face additional challenges such as discriminatory bias from capital providers.
Entrepreneurs from all backgrounds face institutional barriers. Traditional lending is unavailable to most businesses due to risk-averse underwriting standards and emphasis on historic profitability. Traditional equity investment is the least accessible form of financing as less than 1% of new businesses receive it. This type of investment is narrowly focused on high-growth ideas with abundant opportunities for the investor to receive a financial return. We see the value of supporting entrepreneurs but we also see the importance of completely changing the system itself by creating new funding strategies that by their very design and purpose, close the gap for many of these amazing entrepreneurs.
We know entrepreneurs from many diverse backgrounds face weighty barriers. These barriers impose a high cost to the U.S. economy, in terms of job creation and innovation.
Victor Hwang, Founder/CEO of RightToStart.org
Render Capital Strategies
Competition
The Render Competition invests $100,000 into eight companies each year.
WeFunder Match
Created to support companies who decide to raise debt or equity investment on Wefunder by matching the first $20,000 raised from the crowd and can unlock up to a total of $200,000.
Angel Network
To educate, train and inspire the next generation of early-stage investors
