This article is based on the article published in the FD on 24 April ‘Financiering vaak lastig voor ondernemers van kleur: 'Banken staan niet voor ons in de rij'

Getting finance is difficult for every SME these days. But entrepreneurs of color are having an extra challenging time. 'Talent and business are lost in this way', many investors now also know.

It is nice to see that it is often the “non-mainstream” entrepreneurs who find their way to sharefunding and our platform. “The right food chain”, “fashion made from ocean plastic” and “recycled, reused and vegan materials” are examples of the terminology used by our customers. And that feels good! The interesting thing is that we do not consciously direct or aim for this, but it appears that our solutions and the way in which we offer them fit very well with entrepreneurs who do not fit into the standard box.

We therefore believe that entrepreneurs of color could also make good use of our sharefunding platform and that is endorsed by this article. To start with, we make it completely digitally possible to obtain growth capital without having to go to the bank or take out a loan. The problem that “banks are not queuing up for us” has thus been solved.

This also ensures that the costs of the interest mentioned in the article, €30k per year at the bank or even almost €50k via the crowdfunding loan, can simply be invested in the company and do not have to be paid to a third party.

Our “debt-equity calculator” which is publicly available shows that, on average, break-even can be reached one year earlier and one million more can be generated after six years if equity rather than loans are used via share funding.

Also the fact that entrepreneurs of color are often “reliant on family” makes sharefunding a suitable solution because the Eyevestor platform makes the participation of family, partners or employees transparent, flexible, under their own conditions and professionally possible in a completely digital way. This can prevent many a discussion during Christmas dinner that got out of hand.

Finally, it still feels important to emphasize that in many cases sharefunding starts with the generation of growth capital but is essentially aimed at facilitating the financial management of an organization, including investor community management, which uses it in an innovative way. makes of their equity as opposed to an old-fashioned company that is indebted to the bank.

Armand and Willemijn are happy to talk to you to help you further give color to your goals, as long as you want to use your own assets, then we would like to talk to you. Send an email to hello@eyevestor.com or book an appointment with Willemijn directly.