Cambridge Savings Bank has invested $500,000 in Coastal Ventures V LP, a socially responsible venture capital fund managed by CEI Ventures.
Located in Brunswick, Maine, CEI Ventures is a subsidiary of Coastal Enterprises Inc., a non-profit community development financial institution (CDFI) involved in rural business development. Cambridge Savings Bank said in a statement that CEI Ventures is one of the only venture capital firms in the U.S. with a mission and strategy to help create jobs with basic benefits such as paid time off, health benefits and retirement savings.
“CSB has a deep-rooted interest in the creation and retention of good jobs in markets that truly need the support,” Mike Kuhn, Cambridge Savings Bank’s senior corporate banking team leader for corporate lending, said in the statement. “These jobs offer a better living wage and benefits to improve the lives of the employees and their families. Providing capital to underserved business owners is another way to invest in and strengthen the communities we serve.”
Cambridge Savings Bank said it pursued a limited partnership in Coastal Ventures V because the fund’s operators had a 25-year track record as a community development leader with a mission that aligns with the bank’s community-driven efforts in its markets. Cambridge Savings Bank joins 32 accredited investors that will provide capital to help business owners in underserved communities with workforce challenges.
Some of the initiatives Cambridge Savings Bank said drove the decision to invest in the fund included growing good jobs with basic benefits, supporting environmentally sustainable enterprises and business models that expand shared prosperity, providing capital to companies and regions that have challenges accessing equity capital and making it easier for people with low to moderate income to find and keep good jobs.
“We are delighted to add Cambridge Savings Bank as a partner in the Good Jobs Fund,” Nat Henshaw, managing director of CEI Ventures Inc, said in the statement. “We already have a dynamic co-investment in Culture Fresh Foods of Naugatuck, CT. Having a strong bank partner in the Boston market is very beneficial to us and our portfolio companies. We look forward to working with Cambridge Savings Bank to help companies recover from such a challenging year.”
CEI Ventures supports multiple industries with the common theme of social benefit and good job growth. Coastal Ventures V is its fifth fund, and the firm has raised over $60 million and invested in 64 companies, helping to create 2,700 new jobs at environmentally friendly sustainable enterprises, according to the statement.
Cambridge Savings Bank, which has about $5 billion in assets, said it would continue to seek strategic investment opportunities to support small businesses, underserved localities and enterprises, and low- to moderate-income individuals and families.
