- Apple is using CNote’s platform to invest $25 million in underserved communities.
- Oakland-based CNote facilitates investments in economic equality, racial justice, gender equity and climate change initiatives.
- Apple joins other companies using CNote to invest, including Mastercard, Patagonia, PayPal, and Netflix.
CNote, a company that facilitates investments in fixed income and time deposit products that advance the social good, revealed its newest investor today. Apple is using the California-based company’s platform to invest $25 million in underserved communities.
“We’re committed to helping ensure that everyone has access to the opportunity to pursue their dreams and create our shared future,” said Apple VP of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives Lisa Jackson. “By working with CNote to get funds directly to historically under-resourced communities through their local financial institutions, we can support equity, entrepreneurship and access.”
Apple’s $25 million contribution is part of the company’s Racial Equity and Justice initiative, an effort to address systemic racism and expand opportunities for people of color.
CNote has already deployed some of the funds to an initial round of financial institutions, including:
- ANECA Federal Credit Union in Louisiana
- Bank of Cherokee County in Oklahoma
- Carver State Bank in Georgia
- Education Credit Union in Texas
- First Southwest Bank in Colorado
- Hope Credit Union, which serves Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee
- Kaua‘i Federal Credit Union in Hawai‘i
- Latino Community Credit Union in North Carolina
- Legacy Bank in Missouri
- Optus Bank in South Carolina
- Self-Help Federal Credit Union, with locations in California, Illinois, Washington, and Wisconsin
- VCC Bank in Virginia
As Bank of Cherokee County EVP Susannah Plumb Scott explained, the funds invested via the CNote platform can make a real difference in underserved communities. “Partnerships like the one we have with CNote and Apple are essential to our efforts to expand access to capital, as well as to financial products and services, in a historically underserved market,” said Scott, whose institution invests 95% of deposits back into Cherokee County.
Echoing those thoughts is Education Credit Union President and CEO Eric Jenkins, who said deposits like Apple’s “allow ECU to serve more consumers and meet a broader range of needs.”
Founded in 2016, CNote’s platform provides insured deposits to a group of vetted, mission-driven financial institutions, including community development financial institutions (CDFIs), low-income designated (LID) credit unions, and minority depository institutions (MDIs). These financial institutions use the deposits to help promote economic equality, racial justice, gender equity, and climate change initiatives.
CNote investors, a list that includes Mastercard, Patagonia, PayPal, Netflix, and now Apple, receive quarterly impact reports with details on which institutions received deposits and the populations that are benefiting.
CNote was a B Lab “Best for the World” honoree in 2019 and was named “Best Women-Owned Business” by the U.N. Women’s Empowerment Principles program in 2020. The company has raised $43 million.