Citigroup Inc.

09/17/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/17/2024 07:11

Citi Impact Fund Releases Impact Report

As a leading global bank, we can help catalyze game-changing solutions that advance economic opportunity and address some of society's most pressing challenges. That's why we launched the Citi Impact Fund in 2020, introducing a new investment tool that complements our existing philanthropy and community development efforts and rounds out the levers available to us to drive meaningful change.

Today, the Citi Impact Fund is a $500 million "double-bottom line" fund making direct equity investments - from Citi's own balance sheet - into U.S.-based start-ups that are developing innovative solutions that fill market gaps and support underserved communities in innovative and sustainable ways. Since inception, we have invested in 48 companies, allocated over $165 million and provided a range of post-investment support to high impact start-ups and a few select funds working across four focus areas: Financial Resilience, Social Infrastructure, Future of Work and Climate Resilience.

While applying rigorous investing standards, we focus concurrently on helping to solve social and environmental challenges and on fostering an inclusive start-up and venture capital landscape. The Citi Impact Fund team takes an inclusive approach to our investing process, leveraging varied sourcing channels and networks to find and support promising social innovations with the potential to scale. Over 70% of the Citi Impact Fund's portfolio companies are founded or co-founded by entrepreneurs from historically underfunded communities, many of whom have lived experience related to the challenges they are building solutions to address.

As the world recovers from the volatility experienced during and following the COVID-19 pandemic, we have been proud to continue expanding the ways in which we add value to our portfolio companies and the start-up ecosystem, going "beyond the dollars" to invest our resources and expertise. This remains a key pillar of our approach to helping companies accelerate their growth and impact, whether they aim to reach new markets, increase demand for their offerings or build long-term resilience.

As such, we are thrilled to share our Impact Report, including an overview of our investing approach, a celebration of the impact our portfolio companies have achieved in communities across the U.S. and a summary of the ways we are helping catalyze economic progress by supporting innovative start-ups.