ATLANTA – September 12, 2024 – Atlanta Emerging Markets, Inc. (AEMI) recently provided more than $400,000 in social impact loans to support five Atlanta-based businesses and non-profits.  The high-impact organizations include a local non-profit and businesses tackling key social challenges, such as trauma healing and wellness, healthy food access, representation in play, and health and wellness for children with mental or physical disabilities.

AEMI’s financing will allow these impact driven organizations to execute key growth opportunities, including improvements to customer platforms, inventory production, and the implementation of new contracts, purchase orders, and grants.  

“Atlanta’s non-profits and social entrepreneurs are driving creative solutions that address the country’s most pressing social challenges,” says Stephen McRae, President, Atlanta Emerging Markets, Inc.  “It is critical that these organizations have access to the capital and financial support they need to continue creating meaningful change in our communities. This is fundamental to AEMI’s mission.”

AEMI provides flexible and accessible capital to organizations that are supporting residents in Atlanta’s economically distressed neighborhoods.  AEMI’s loan programs make financing more accessible by using innovative underwriting practices, such as character-based and contract-based underwriting, while also removing potentially discriminatory evaluation metrics from the loan review process.  As a result, these loans facilitate business growth, enhance community resilience, and foster equitable development.

Organizations funded include:

Community Farmers Market

Community Farmers Markets is a non-profit that supports Atlanta’s food ecosystem, working to make healthy foods accessible for all Atlantans through programs like MARTA Markets and technical assistance for farm vendors.

black girls breathing®

black girls breathing® is a social impact enterprise helping Black women heal generational, societal, and individual trauma through breathwork.  The company is innovating the wellness industry by providing accessible and culturally relevant mental health care to an underserved community. Additionally, black girls breathing® works to fill in the gaps of health data and research available on Black women, who are historically underserved and underrepresented by healthcare research and medical providers.

Retaaza

Retaaza is a woman-owned B Corp and social enterprise that makes local food more accessible and affordable by diverting food waste at the farm level, directly supports our communities’ farmers, reconnects consumers to their food and their planet, and feeds families and individuals struggling with food insecurity. 

Beautiful Curly Me

Beautiful Curly Me is a mother-daughter owned social enterprise fostering representation in play.  The business was sparked when now 12-year-old, CEO and Co-founder, Zoe, was six years old and could not find a doll that looked like her.  The company launched a line of dolls and has expanded to offer puzzles, plush dolls and empowering books that Zoe writes herself.  All products foster self-confidence and love through representation in play. Additionally, for every doll purchased, Beautiful Curly Me gives away another doll to an underprivileged girl.

Swim Life Fitness

Swim Life Fitness is a non-profit that provides wellness and aquatic programming for children with mental and physical health disorders. The organization’s Sensory H20 program combines physical therapy with swim lessons.

To learn more about Atlanta Emerging Markets, Inc visit https://atlantaemergingmarkets.org/. For media inquiries contact Katrina Highsmith-Johnson at khighsmith@investatlanta.com.

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Atlanta Emerging Markets, Inc. (AEMI)

AEMI is a U.S. Treasury-certified Community Development Entity, created by Invest Atlanta in 2005, that specializes in providing gap financing for projects that create jobs and/or services that support Atlanta’s economically distressed neighborhoods.

Invest Atlanta

Invest Atlanta is the official economic development authority for the City of Atlanta. Its purpose is to strengthen Atlanta’s economy and global competitiveness to create increased opportunity and prosperity for the people of Atlanta.