Candide Group Fall Roundup 2021

This season, we’re in listening and planning mode at Candide Group — strategizing on how we can go deeper in moving the kind of investments that best-in-impact companies and funds deserve. That reflection-work doesn't mean Candide Group has slowed, however. We invite you to check out recent closings we’re proud of, join us in welcoming growth in our team, and help us find the perfect fit for a new role with the Olamina Fund. More below!

Recently Facilitated Investments

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Portfolio News

Zuleyka Strasner is on Inc.'s 2021 Female Founders 100 list

For Zero Grocery’s role in taking plastic out of the grocery supply chain.

Climbing the Economic Ladder in Fresno, California

"In 2015, after years of working low-wage jobs, Vinson Fernandez enrolled in a six-month web-developer training course at Bitwise Industries… Last year, Bitwise hired him as a full-time back-end developer and instructor. His new career broke a multigenerational cycle of economic precarity. For the first time, Fernandez and his family could plan for a more stable future.”

CleanFiber raises nearly $12M to boost operations

To date, CleanFiber has raised $39 million in investment, including $500,000 as a prize winner in the 2016 43North competition.

Team News

Please join us in welcoming Candide’s newest member, Starkey Baker, in the critical new role of Digital Communications Associate!

Starkey is a passionate storyteller. They love to work with, understand, and elevate subjects. Starkey graduated from University of Minnesota Twin Cities with a B.A. in Political Science a member of the National Residence Hall Honorary. Across ten years, Starkey highlighted the stories of activists and survivors across a myriad of intersections. Their work has been featured in publications like WIRED and Rolling Stone. We’re grateful that they’ve chosen to lend their talents to our team!

We’re Hiring!

Portfolio Manager, Olamina Fund

In October 2019 we launched the Olamina Fund as an extension of Candide’s impact thesis and values, with a specific focus on racial and economic justice. Our overarching objective is to address the lack of access to capital in communities that have faced decades of historic extraction and exclusion, and to shift the traditional power dynamics within our current financial system. While the Fund has the potential to lend money across the United States, we’ve identified the greatest need for capital in the Deep South, Rural America, and in Indian Country, including Native Hawaii and Alaska Native lands. We lend to community development financial institutions (“CDFIs”), private loan funds, and other organizations that may work in the areas of small business development, worker cooperatives, and low-income housing, with a view towards a just and restorative financial system for all.

Olamina launched with an initial capitalization of $40M. We have currently invested $34M and anticipate being fully invested by the end of 2021. At full investment, we expect to have 24 loans across 21 relationships, with a majority of organizations being CDFIs and other loan funds.

We are seeking a Portfolio Manager to steward this portfolio of relationships with compassion and curiosity, and an eagerness to support the advancement of their mission.

Learn more below & apply by November 3rd!

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From Our Community to Yours

Many of you may know that in response to our ongoing advocacy — and strong beliefs in favor of ending profiting off of incarceration and immigrant detention — a private prison company filed a lawsuit against both Candide Group and Founding Partner Morgan Simon, claiming that certain of our statements on Forbes.com regarding their involvement in family detention and lobbying activities were “defamatory.” With the great legal counsel of Davis Wright Tremaine, we won dismissal of this case, however, given the prison company appealed, it is still an active lawsuit that we ultimately expect to win.

While the lawsuit was technically about prisons, it's really about a much broader issue — the right of activists to speak truth to power, something we see as critical for community organizations, impact investors, voters, really everyone in an open society. Our lawsuit is being called a classic “SLAPP” suit by organizations like The Sierra Club and Presente.org; a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. We wanted to spend some time sharing more about what SLAPP suits are, how they impact global efforts to hold corporations accountable for their activities, and why impact investors should be on the lookout for them.

A Lawsuit A Day Keeps The Activists Away: New Report Finds 355 Lawsuits Filed By Big Business Against Activists

Increasingly, businesses globally are using lawsuits to try and silence their critics, says a recent report from the Business and Human Rights Centre (BHRC).

“Protect the Protest” Amicus Brief on our behalf

As of October 15, 2021, more than a dozen activist groups have filed a brief supporting our efforts. Signatories include Amazon Watch, The Center for Constitutional Rights, The Civil Liberties Defense Center, Direct Action Everywhere, The Electronic Frontier Foundation, Greenpeace, International Corporate Accountability Roundtable, Mosquito Fleet, Palestine Legal, Portland Rising Tide, Presente.org, Rainforest Action Network, Rising Tide North America, and The Sierra Club.This brief helps explain the broader legal issues at stake in protecting free speech.

Follow us on Twitter or visit CandideGroup.com for more!

View our list of past specific recommendations for the last 12 months. For more information about Candide, please see our Form ADV, Part 2A.

Disclosure: The information contained in this document is intended for educational and information purposes only and should not be considered investment tax or legal advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any particular security. Please consult with your tax and legal advisors regarding your particular circumstances.Certain statements contained herein may constitute projections, forecasts, and other forward-looking statements, which do not reflect actual results and are based primarily upon a hypothetical set of assumptions applied to certain historical financial information. Certain information has been provided by third-party sources, and, although believed to be reliable, it has not been independently verified, and its accuracy or completeness cannot be guaranteed.Any opinions, projections, forecasts, and forward-looking statements presented herein are valid as of the date of this document and are subject to change.The investment discussed herein have been included based on the following methodology: all investments Candide Group has facilitated on behalf of our clients since the publishing of our last all-network newsletter, and investments with recent public news events. For a complete list of all investments, please click the “list of past specific recommendations for the last 12 months” link above. The views and opinions are those of the author as of the date of publication and are subject to change at any time. This material represents an assessment of the market environment at a specific point in time and is not intended to be a forecast of future events, or a guarantee of future results. Candide Group is under no obligation to update this information after the date of this publication.Past performance is not indicative of future results; no representation is being made that any investment will or is likely to achieve profits or losses like those achieved in the past, or that significant losses will be avoided. An investor should consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of any financial product carefully before investing. Investing involves various risks, including loss of principal. Charts and graphs provided herein are for illustrative purposes only. For more information about Candide, please see our Form ADV, Part 2A.