West Oakland Music Producer Grows Startup Business with CDFI Equity Investment
Client: Bosko and Maya Kante, co-founders of ElectroSpit
Client Location: Oakland, CA
CDFI: ICA
CDFI Service Area: CA
Financing and technical assistance, with support from the Grow with Google Small Business Fund and Google.org Grant Program
Pioneering music technology company ElectroSpit makes the world’s only lightweight, fully-portable, tubeless talkbox. This technology allows musicians to play various instrumental sounds and voices through their mouth, creating a unique ability to “sing” with limitless range and creativity. Every device is hand-crafted at the company’s headquarters in West Oakland, California, a historically Black community. ElectroSpit’s product has been featured in songs by Bruno Mars and Big Boi of OutKast, and is used by David Guetta and Stevie Wonder.
Without adequate collateral or historical performance to qualify for a mainstream bank loan, co-founders Bosko and Maya Kante have relied on crowdfunding for capital. But at the end of 2021, ElectroSpit secured their first equity investment from ICA, deploying the capital to help grow the brand in the professional musician market, while also developing products with a lower price point that can be produced at scale. ElectroSpit is one of the first companies to receive an equity investment through the new ICA Impact Note — an innovative investment structure that helps entrepreneurs prioritize social impacts, like good job creation, workforce diversity, and profit distribution.
Electrospit is Black-led, and the team is 86 percent people of color. The company provides training, mentorship, and a living wage starting at $25 per hour, and is working to provide benefits like healthcare and profit-sharing. Full-time staff also qualify for paid time off, maternity leave, transportation credits, and more. ElectroSpit is also part of the Black Music Entrepreneurship Incubator, which recently acquired property in West Oakland to serve as a cultural hub for musicians and artists of color. The founders mentor and advise local musicians on developing sustainable careers and small businesses in music through volunteer work at the nonprofit Zoo Labs. In addition, Bosko operates his own nonprofit which will support underrepresented artists at a newly purchased building in West Oakland.
“This is an exciting time of growth at ElectroSpit and having ICA alongside us has been huge. The ICA team is a great partner in our growth and has ensured we are ready for scale and capital,” said Bosko.
Photo at top: Bosko and Maya Kante, co-Founders of ElectroSpit with their son