This Black-Owned Stock Exchange Is Calling On The Public To Invest In Budding Black-Owned Businesses

Ongoing racial inequalities and wealth gaps—further exacerbated by an ongoing pandemic—continue to prevent Black and brown business owners from gaining much-needed access to capital.

One former lawyer is stepping in to help. In partnership with the Black-owned private equity firm Cadiz Capital Holding, Joe Cecala is launching the Dream Exchange to give business owners of color the opportunity to build solid wealth with the help of the American investing public. Majority-owned by Cadiz Capital Holding, this new stock exchange will allow people to invest in small, early-stage businesses once it launches in 2021. 

“It will be a stock exchange that factors in the totality of society and flows money into businesses that help us survive as a whole,” Cecala tells For(bes) The Culture.

Cecala, who founded and operated his own law firm for more than 10 years, combines his knowledge of small business transactions and online trading. He was a key member of the team that developed one of the first computerized networks to facilitate online trading of financial products. 

Through the Dream Exchange’s online platform, companies looking to go public can connect with potential investors.

“It’s not just teaching a man to fish, it’s financing his boat,” says Cecala. “Why is it that every tech company has all of the money that it needs, but smaller companies, companies that actually help us with the day to day process of living, have a harder time getting access to capital or they don’t get capital at all?”

Amid the ongoing pandemic—which nearly 40% of Black-owned businesses don’t expect to survive—the venture is all the more important. 

“In the 230-year history of stock exchanges in America, only one Black-owned firm has made it to the New York Stock exchange,” says Cecala. “There has never been a Black-owned stock exchange. The Dream Exchange will be a real solution to the inequity and disparity that is so prevalent in our communities. In America, you should be able to build your boat and let it sail, to be free and dream the American dream.”

William H. Ellison, chairman of Cadiz Capital Holding, echoes that sentiment. “For years, my team and I have looked for a way to help mid-size businesses to participate more extensively in the U.S. economy,” he says. “We feel the Dream Exchange is that way.”

For(bes) The Culture is Forbes’ recently launched hub for Black and brown professionals.