Gardner Capital, a Dallas-based private equity firm and alternative investment company focused on multifamily housing and renewable energy development and investment, has expanded its partnership with Kiva, a San Francisco-based nonprofit focused on support for better futures.

Gardner Capital’s partnership with Kiva through the firm’s GCRE Upward Mobility Fund includes a loan matching program for the St. Louis area to drive minority-led small businesses’ access to finance. The firm aims to provide a revolving fund to match loans raised on Kiva’s crowd-funding platform to both increase the total funding available and drive the speed of funding loans for entrepreneurs.

“While our initial goal of funding at least 100 minority-led small businesses in St. Louis in the next year might sound modest, we expect to meet, exceed and then increase that goal each and every year…and then just keep growing it from there,” says Michael Gardner, founder of the GCRE Upward Mobility Fund and CEO of Gardner Capital.