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Programs/

Zult Impact: Building open financial infrastructure to expand capital access for community lenders

Zult Impact builds and stewards open financial infrastructure; tools, research, and standards that make capital markets more transparent, inclusive, and accountable.

How Zult strengthens the small business ecosystem in the United States

  • Demand for affordable small business capital is much greater than supply. According to a recent Federal Reserve survey, 81% of Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) identify insufficient lending capital as their primary constraint on growth. This shortage has direct consequences for creditworthy borrowers: even when CDFIs are willing to lend, capital constraints force them to deny or reduce financing to otherwise qualified entrepreneurs.
  • Zult Impact is a nonprofit public benefit corporation building open financial infrastructure that expands capital access for the entire community development finance sector. Its first major initiative, the CDFI Gateway, gives community lenders the tools to absorb risk and recycle capital faster, so they can serve more entrepreneurs in underserved communities.
Mastercard Strive

Program overview

Our work together

We are supporting Zult Impact's CDFI Gateway, an initiative that pairs two complementary innovations:

    • A loan loss reserve that absorbs first-loss defaults, enabling institutional investors to lend with confidence.
    • A secondary market for tokenized CDFI loans recycles capital in weeks rather than months.

Together, these tools will expand what community lenders can deploy to qualified entrepreneurs in underserved communities.

With Mastercard Strive USA's support, Zult Impact will also form and capitalize a Loan Loss Reserve, recruit and onboard eight pilot CDFIs, integrate the Reserve with a separately funded secondary market for tokenized CDFI loans, and publish open-source frameworks so the model can be adopted across the sector.


By the numbers

Through this work we expect to:

  • Generate $5 to $10 million in loan originations
  • Reach 300 to 500 small-business entrepreneurs in underserved communities
  • Produce public goods that benefit the broader field of 1,400-plus CDFIs nationwide
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Become a partner

Interested in being a partner for change?

Together we can empower millions of small businesses globally with innovative digital solutions that boost resilience, growth, and inclusion. Your organization's expertise can help bring impactful programs to scale, deepen local reach, and create meaningful change in the small business ecosystem. Be part of a vibrant partner community driving real economic impact.

Contact us
The capital gap facing entrepreneurs in underserved communities isn't a borrower problem; it's a system design problem. CDFIs are ready and willing to lend; they need the infrastructure to do it at the scale their communities deserve. With Mastercard Strive USA's support, we're building that infrastructure in the open, so the whole sector benefits.

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