Oakland, CA, April 2, 2024 — Last week, the Quality Jobs Fund (QJF), a collaborative project of the New World Foundation and the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, announced a groundbreaking investment of $4 million in ICA Fund, an impact-focused nonprofit venture capital firm based in Oakland, CA, serving the San Francisco Bay Area. This is an anchor investment in the next phase of the ICA Growth Fund, which aims to raise and deploy $25M to invest in historically underserved founders, especially women and entrepreneurs of color. This investment will fuel ICA’s work to support entrepreneurs committed to creating good jobs that advance shared prosperity and address racial and gender wealth gaps.
ICA Fund is a leading partner for small businesses in the Bay Area, providing support to founders to grow their businesses and create wealth for themselves, their employees, and their communities. To date, ICA Fund has invested over $12 million in a portfolio of 50 companies, with 90% of all investment dollars going to women entrepreneurs or founders of color.
The investment from QJF is a significant vote of confidence in ICA Fund's unique approach and its impact on local economic development. Noah Bernstein, Director of the Quality Jobs Fund, shared his excitement about the partnership, stating, "QJF's commitment to ICA Fund and the expansion of the Growth Fund, is a testament to the importance and efficacy of their work. We believe in their mission to grow small businesses and create quality jobs in the Bay Area."
ICA Fund's investment model is designed to empower entrepreneurs with debt-free financing and the opportunity to recover equity as they meet social impact milestones through the ICA Impact Note. This approach has proven successful: on average, every $1 invested by ICA Fund attracts $7 more in outside capital. The organization's comprehensive support has enabled Bay Area businesses to create good jobs, wealth, and economic resilience.
Allison Kelly, CEO of ICA Fund, expressed her excitement about the partnership with QJF, stating, "We are thrilled to partner with QJF to ensure underestimated entrepreneurs achieve sustainable, profitable growth for their businesses — and enable them to share that prosperity with their employees and their communities."
About ICA Fund: ICA Fund accelerates great businesses through mentoring and investments to close the racial and gender wealth gaps. We support small businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area led by founders of color and women by providing capital, coaching, and connections. ICA Fund helps entrepreneurs grow the value of their businesses and create wealth for themselves and their employees, driving toward our vision of an economy that works for all. ica.fund
About Quality Job Fund: The Quality Jobs Fund, a collaborative project of the New World Foundation and the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, is a $100 million impact investment fund built to enhance and transform underserved communities by seeding sustainable, long-term, well-paid jobs, skill upgrading for working people and fuel small business expansion in vital growth industries primarily in Arizona, California, and Nevada, along with select innovative national models. As the largest philanthropic effort of its kind — prioritizing a focus on investing in job quality, not just job creation, the Quality Jobs Fund has not only created thousands of new quality jobs, enhanced and grown hundreds of small businesses, and trained and up-skilled thousands of underserved workers, but it has also catalyzed innovative solutions that address systemic drivers of local economic decline and resulting inequality that will in turn build prosperous, vibrant, and strong communities. qualityjobsfund.org
