The main goal of this project is to research and develop new social finance instruments for Indigenous Entrepreneurs. This will involve talking with Indigenous entrepreneurs, capital providers, and ecosystem actors to understand their needs, challenges, and opportunities. The project also involves researching existing social finance instruments and traditional ones.

These new instruments will complement, leverage, and/or improve, not compete with or replace, existing capital providers. These new instruments will also be culturally appropriate, not harm entrepreneurs, nor bind them into colonial ways of oppression that dominates the existing capital system – like traditional loans or equity. 

The tasks that learners need to complete to achieve the project goal include:

- Researching existing ways that Indigenous entrepreneurs are accessing capital and their interactions in that.

- Researching existing Indigenous and non-Indigenous capital providers and their views on the barriers that exist for Indigenous entrepreneurs.

- Identifying the needs, challenges, and opportunities of Indigenous entrepreneurs.

- Ideating new social finance instruments that could benefit Indigenous entrepreneurs.

- Adding to the data pool and summarizing the research and development process.

Learners will have training by Wakopa Financial and the Social Entrepreneurship Enclave staff and then unfettered access to the research lead for Wakopa Financial. We have also set up the research process, including interview questions.

For those that do an exemplary job, we have a second phase of the project, which is also paid through the LevelUP program via Riipen.