The Economic and Community Development Institute is rolling out a new opportunity for anyone in the community to directly invest in small business development. Their brand new “Invest Local Ohio program” allows for small personal investments to be made that go toward starting businesses in Central Ohio through their traditional lending and education programs. This peer-to-peer lending model is somewhat similar to the national lending/investment business Prosper.com, but executed on a hyper-local level. ECDI is planning on raising $10 million over the next three years through this new program to fund entrepreneurs, startups and other small business economic development throughout Columbus.
More information can be found in the full story at TheMetropreneur.com.