More area small business owners turned to the Colorado Enterprise Fund for a loan in 2016 than ever before in the organization’s 40 years.
The nonprofit released its showing that in fiscal year 2016, which ended Sept. 30, it distributed $9.3 million to 217 borrowers. That’s up from $4.4 million for 149 loans three years ago.
That financial support helped borrowers create or retain 11 jobs per loan, with the average loan at $42,700. And every single borrower is a Colorado-based business that found it difficult to get a traditional loan.
That’s standard at the Colorado Enterprise Fund, whose first recipient was Mountain High Yoghurt in 1976. The yogurt company used the money to expand manufacturing by working with a group of Denver bankers and community leaders that ultimately became the Colorado Enterprise Fund. Mountain High is now part of General Mills Inc. The fund counts about 30 funding partners, which are mostly banks.
Companies that struggled to get loans from traditional sources included Longmont’s The Roost, whose first-time restaurant owners were turned away for lack of experience. Over at Dragonfly Apparel in Denver, an employee interested in buying the retailer didn’t have enough equity. The Fund’s site has a companies that received a loan.
The fund also shared growing numbers of its borrowers, which include an 111 percent increase in loans to minority-owned businesses, a 72 percent increase in loans to low-income entrepreneurs and a 36 percent increase to women entrepreneurs. Women-owned businesses made up half of all loans closed. Read the full 2016 report at .