Thank You for Supporting Our Impact in 2023

by Ellis Carr, President & CEO

As we begin 2024, I want to thank all of you – whether you are a borrower, a partner, an investor, or a member of the Momentus community – for being part of our work to reimagine and build an economic system that includes everyone.

2023 was an especially exciting year! We celebrated the second anniversary of bringing together Capital Impact Partners, CDC Small Business Finance, and Ventures Lending Technologies to create the Momentus Capital branded family of organizations. We also celebrated the public launch of the newest member of that family, Momentus Securities, our mission-driven broker-dealer.

We created Momentus Capital because we knew we could do more to support entrepreneurs and community development leaders. As we start a new year, there is no doubt the events of 2023 served as a good reminder of why we took on this ambitious effort in the first place.

Rising interest rates, inflationary pressures, and economic volatility required many of you to rethink your business and investment plans. It is a tough economy for everyone to navigate, but even more so for the small businesses and community-focused organizations we support. Simultaneously, we saw decisions handed down by our courts that upended race-based college admissions, rolled back LGBTQ+ protection from discrimination, and kept racially-based voting rights restrictions in place.

Taken together, these challenges disproportionately impact underestimated communities – adding to the historical challenges that have compounded for generations.

With your support, we remained steadfast in helping our borrowers and communities meet these challenges. We offer support through our broad continuum of financial, knowledge, and social capital solutions. In 2023, we deepened this continuum, launching a variety of initiatives and programs that help communities and businesses thrive:

• We publicly launched Momentus Securities – a registered broker-dealer and FINRA member – to develop “social impact” as an investable asset class for mainstream institutional investors and connect these investors to mission-based organizations working to drive more capital into underserved and underbanked communities.
• We partnered with both New York Life and City First to increase our 504 Commercial Real Estate lending through Momentus Direct Capital. These new partnerships show the diversity of organizations out there that are ready to support our mission.
• Already the leader in the CDC space, Ventures Lending Technologies is now serving the CDFI sector through its offerings of end-to-end loan management solutions.

Through the hard work of our team, Momentus Capital has injected half a billion dollars in capital into over 500 small businesses & projects in 2023. 

In doing so, we’ve helped to create or retain over 5,000 jobs. Our technical assistance teams have provided over 10,000 hours of free business advising and trained over 100 emerging community-based real estate developers. And as always, we are focused on including everyone in this work: over 50% of our capital has gone to BIPOC-led projects and businesses, as we work to close the racial wealth gap through income, ownership, and wealth creation. The data is still coming in from December, and I look forward to a more complete report out in our upcoming Annual Report.

We are also dedicated to building an organizational culture that motivates and engages our team. This year, both CDC and Capital Impact were both named to the NonProfit Times Best Places to Work list recognizing best-in-class organizations making an impact across the country.

Our sights are already set on fostering more impact in 2024. We look forward to working with you all, our diverse community of borrowers, partners, and supporters.

When we celebrate what Momentus Capital is doing, we are also acknowledging and thanking the people who make it possible – that’s all of you. We are all part of a larger movement to ensure that we live in a country where everyone has the health, wealth, and power they need to author their own story.

On behalf of all of us at Momentus Capital, I am truly grateful for your support. I cannot wait to continue working with you!