In 2003, the City of Anderson and Anderson University banded together to create the Flagship Enterprise Center. Flagship was started as a means to grow, attract, and start new jobs and businesses in town following a dramatic downturn in local economic prosperity. They built several facilities to provide attractive and accommodating business incubator bases.
Coming out of the ‘08-09 financial crisis, small businesses were having trouble obtaining capital from banks. Recognizing the local need for capital, Flagship launched Bankable as an SBA (Small Business Administration) microlender in 2010.
Bankable started off slow, making only 4 loans during the first year, and 6 in the second, limited to businesses already located in Flagship incubators. After finding success on a local scale, Bankable received approval to start expanding throughout the state. By 2016, we were making more than 150 loans per year to small businesses in Indiana, and the numbers just keep climbing.
In July of this year, we closed our 1,000th loan since Bankable’s inception.
We couldn’t have reached this point without the support of our referral partners, community partners, the SBA, our Bankable team, and many, many more.
This is only the beginning… Now we pave our way to $100 million!