Mainebiz

V O L . X X V I I I N O. X M AY 1 6 , 2 0 2 2 16 S M A L L B U S I N E S S F O C U S the Indus Fund is touted as Maine's first and only immigrant-specific microfi- nance loan program connected to the existing banking system. e goal is to break down barriers for immigrants who might otherwise be shut out of tradi- tional bank financing. "e past was defined by unin- tentional redlining," says the fund's Turkish-Pakistani-American founder and managing partner, Kerem Durdag, who named the fund after South Asia's Indus River. "e present and the future are defined by address- ing those injustices and being proac- tive and progressive about it." He's also on a mission to bring affordable broadband to all of Maine, via his role as president and CEO of Biddeford- based carrier GWI. Durdag, a member of the Maine Angels group of investors and a former entrepreneur himself, says that while he never faced hurdles in his own business ventures, he observed it with others. "Having seen firsthand interest rates up to 25% offered to immigrant busi- ness owners out of fear," he says, "my sensibility is to work with banks to com- pletely downshift that fear." While the Indus Fund started with cPort, he says, "it is not only my hope, it is my goal in life, to get more banks to do this, and I will not stop until we cover all of Maine." Banking the 'unbanked' Microfinance, or microcredit, is a grow- ing category of financial services target- ing individuals and small businesses who lack access to conventional banking. In 2019, an estimated 5.4% of U.S. households were "unbanked," meaning that no one in the household had a checking account at a bank or credit union, according to a report by the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. e same report found that a large proportion of minorities were shut out of the federal Paycheck Protection Program, with loans reaching only 20% of eligible businesses in states with the highest densities of Black-owned enterprises. Coverage rates were even lower in counties with the densest Black-owned business activity. Another report, by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in August 2020, said one reason Black-owned firms were unable to access PPP loans was because they entered the pandemic in a weaker financial position than white peers. Black firms were also found to be almost twice as likely to go out of business as small firms overall. For a growing number of unem- ployed or low-income individuals around the world, microfinance offers access to banking and insurance services otherwise out of reach. One projection, from the "Microfinance — Global Market Trajectory & Analytics" report published in March, puts the global market at $303 billion by 2025, about double what it was esti- mated to be in 2020. Portland | Kennebunk | Biddeford www.perkinsthompson.com From startup to succession planning, our attorneys leverage business and commercial law expertise to help our clients achieve their goals. » C O N T I N U E D F RO M P R E V I O U S PA G E The past was defined by unintentional redlining. The present and the future are defined by addressing those injustices and being proactive and progressive about it. — Kerem Durdag Indus Fund P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY Kerem Durdag is the founder and managing partner of the Indus Fund, a new microloan program for small business owners in Maine's growing immigrant community.

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