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About IIE
Announced in October 2022 by Vice President Kamala Harris, Hyphen launched the Initiative for Inclusive Entrepreneurship (IIE), a national public-private partnership with the U.S. Department of Treasury to expand access to capital for small businesses owned by people of color. IIE harnesses the power of collaboration to ensure the equitable implementation of the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s $10 billion State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI), 40% of which is designated for businesses owned by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals. With leverage as a built-in strategy, every SSBCI dollar deployed is designed to catalyze $10 in private investment, with a 1:1 match required.
Authorized under the American Rescue Plan, SSBCI is primed to be the most significant small business program in U.S. history. And its full potential can only be realized through public-private collaboration. Through IIE, the corporate and philanthropic investors support capacity building, fuel innovative strategies and products, and invest the required matching capital that will ultimately strengthen the small business ecosystem, advance racial equity, and transform communities.
Hyphen designed and led IIE’s 18-month pilot with the initiative’s implementation partners, which include: Aspen Institute’s Business Ownership Initiative, Founders First Capital Partners, JumpStart, Mission Driven Finance, Next Street, Nowak Metro Finance Lab, and Scale Link. With the successful completion of the pilot, Hyphen transitioned IIE to the Milken Institute on July 1, 2024. To learn more about IIE, please contact publicfinance@milkeninstitute.org.
Why IIE
Small businesses are the heartbeat of the U.S. economy. They account for almost half of our GDP and employ nearly half of all private-sector workers. Entrepreneurs of color represent the fastest growing segment of the small business market, yet they have the least access to capital. They are more likely to be denied credit; more likely to pay high interest rates; and less likely to apply for loans out of fear of being denied.
Thank you to IIE's Pilot-Phase Funders and Investors
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative | John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation | JPMorgan Chase | Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth | Nathan Cummings Foundation
Skoll Foundation | Wells Fargo | W.K. Kellogg Foundation
“The State Small Business Credit Initiative has made an historic investment in entrepreneurship and innovation that is structured to ensure communities of color, rural areas, and others that have difficulty accessing capital, are able to get the financing they need to grow and scale. Partnerships between states, private sector, philanthropy, and nonprofits will be critical to the Initiative’s continued success.”
–– Janet Yellen, Secretary of the Treasury
(as quoted in Hyphen’s press release)
