Investor Charles Robinson is on a mission to change the City of Durham, one business district at a time.
To start, he’s eyeing Hayti District, a historic neighborhood that served as the social and cultural center for the city’s Black community. Robinson is working with a new Social Impact Fund, a $10 million Community Development Corporation (CDC) that the Durham, North Carolina City Council recently announced.
Robinson, managing partner at 1888 Ventures, will work on deploying $2 million of that into local businesses in order to revitalize the area. In total, $2.7 million will go towards commercial real estate and business development in the Hayti area.
Robinson is a graduate of Duke University who worked in M&A banking after graduation before jumping into startups. He was a founding partner at Teamworks, a North Carolina-based communication and operations platform for athletic organizations that raised $168.3 million in outside capital, according to Crunchbase.
In 2016 he started as COO of Forward Cities, which worked on building more inclusive startup ecosystems across the country. He started investing in 2018 both as an angel and into commercial real estate. He now splits his time between Atlanta and Durham after officially moving to Atlanta in 2021.
On the Hayti investment project, Robinson told Hypepotamus that he is looking to invest in legacy businesses that are “impactful to the community and create jobs.” He said B2B SaaS, healthcare, fintech, and PropTech startups with direct ties into the Durham area will be eligible for the funding.
Impact investing follows a slightly different model than traditional VCs, since they look specifically to create beneficial social or environmental change while generating financial gains.
Robinson called the Social Impact Fund “catalytic for future investments.”
“Typically, capital moves faster than community. A social impact fund allows for a balance to happen. Providing capital to a community to create change,” he added.
Interested North Carolina businesses looking to be part of the Hayti revitalization project can reach out to Robinson at charles@1888.capital.
