Laura Simao

Lendistry, a minority-led innovator in small business finance, announces today that Laura Simão, a leader in impact investment and asset management, will head its efforts to increase access to equity and debt capital to undercapitalized entrepreneurs as a prospective Small Business Investment Company (SBIC). 

Based in New York City, Laura comes to Lendistry from Goldman Sachs, where she served as Vice President in the Urban Investment Group within Goldman Sachs Asset Management and the head of the access to capital component of Goldman Sachs' 10,000 Small Businesses, an initiative that provides access to education and capital to growing small business owners. Additionally, Laura led the execution of several investments for Goldman Sachs' One Million Black Women, a 10-year commitment to invest $10 billion to close opportunity gaps for at least one million Black women throughout the United States. A seasoned impact investor known for leading innovative access to capital opportunities for underserved entrepreneurs and communities, Laura was responsible for deploying capital for several key investments at Goldman Sachs and was one of the leaders of the firm's COVID response efforts to support small businesses throughout the pandemic. 

"I am inspired by Lendistry's mission to deliver capital solutions to meet the needs of underrepresented small businesses nationally and at scale. It is widely known that women and entrepreneurs of color have not received their fair share of investment capital historically, despite running perfectly viable businesses," Simão says. "The SBA's SBIC program is a powerful tool to help address this inequity, and Lendistry's vision, world-class tech and track record meeting the needs of underrepresented entrepreneurs create a mix that I believe is unparalleled in the fintech space today. I am excited to join the team, and to help Lendistry expand its impact, guided by the belief that we can increase the flow of capital to historically underrepresented entrepreneurs while creating significant value for our investors."

Lendistry has historically focused on term loans, lines of credit and commercial real estate lending with an end-to-end online application and progressive underwriting processes. However, to be truly impactful in its mission to provide economic opportunities, the lender steps up to break new ground in the financial industry when it identifies a gap that prevents undercapitalized business communities from reaching their full potential. In underserved communities, equity creates opportunities for long-term growth.

"I see our SBIC platform as a way to inject larger amounts of capital into underbanked communities with an alternative to debt financing," says Everett K. Sands, CEO of Lendistry. "Laura's experience, her eagerness to create real change, and her unwavering commitment to underserved small businesses make her the only person for the job. She and our team of exceptional leaders will soon offer businesses the one-two punch of both equity and debt as we continue to evolve and scale access to capital to underserved communities."

About Lendistry

B.S.D. Capital, Inc. dba Lendistry (lendistry.com) is a minority-led and technology-enabled small business and commercial real estate lender with Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) and Community Development Entity (CDE) certification. Lendistry is a member of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, headquartered in a Los Angeles Opportunity Zone. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Lendistry provided Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans to small businesses in all 50 states, becoming the #8 PPP lender in the country in 2021. Lendistry was selected by the states of California, Pennsylvania, and New York to administer their small business relief programs, which distributed grants to businesses that lost significant revenues during the pandemic. As a previous SBA Community Advantage lender in California, Lendistry was historically one of the top-ranked lenders in that program in the nation, providing responsible financing to small business owners who needed responsible capital to grow. Lendistry and its nonprofit partner organization, The Center by Lendistry, are dedicated to providing economic opportunities and progressive growth for underserved urban and rural small business borrowers and their communities. In 2022, Lendistry SBLC, LLC, a subsidiary of B.S.D. Capital, Inc., became the nation's only African American-led SBA designated Small Business Lending Company. 

Press contact: communications@lendistry.com