The impact of $15 million: New jobs, revived factories and a stronger Buffalo

The Western New York Impact Investment Fund started with a question: what happens when you give Buffalo-based entrepreneurs the financial support to pursue their ambition?

Now we have an answer: Factories reopen, people find good jobs and neighborhoods that have been overlooked for decades begin to attract new investment.

For nearly a decade, the WNY Impact Investment Fund has been working to make those outcomes possible, connecting investment capital with ambitious entrepreneurs who are building businesses and creating opportunity across the region.

Since 2017, that approach has put about $15 million to work across 27 investments. Each fall, the Fund takes stock of what those investments have accomplished, tracking everything from job creation and neighborhood revitalization to environmental stewardship and access to opportunity.

Check out our previous roundups from 2025 and 2024

Here's what the latest numbers tell us.

Jobs, neighborhoods and environmental stewardship

Across Western New York, the Fund's investments are helping bring vacant industrial properties back to life, create good-paying jobs and build businesses with national reach.

• Clean energy systems, built on Buffalo's East Side. Viridi transformed an abandoned factory into a clean-energy campus that now employs 137 people, 64% of them from marginalized groups. Its battery systems power a Buffalo apartment complex and are replacing diesel generators across the country, including at an Erie County pumping station. Through its Greenforce subsidiary, Viridi is also pioneering a workforce model that recruits from neighborhoods surrounding its factory, providing good-paying jobs and support services that help employees succeed.

• Cardboard into insulation. CleanFiber has transformed a once-empty industrial building in Blasdell into a growing manufacturing operation. The company recently doubled its production output and now produces enough insulation for approximately 9,500 homes across the Midwest and Northeast, using recycled cardboard sourced from local suppliers.

• A Buffalo CPG company goes national. Top Seedz moved into a formerly vacant factory in downtown Buffalo two years ago and has since grown from 55 to 78 employees. Eighty-five percent of its workforce comes from marginalized communities, including many new Americans. The company recently activated another manufacturing line, doubling production as it expands its national business.

• A film industry takes root. Buffalo FilmWorks renovated a formerly abandoned rail car factory on Buffalo's East Side, creating a production campus that has hosted everything from local commercials to major Hollywood films. Its impact extends well beyond its own payroll. Over one recent six-month period, productions at the facility supported approximately 450 jobs for local film crews.

• Food scraps into something useful. EcoVerde processes nearly 3,000 tons of food waste annually at its local composting facility, turning material that might otherwise end up in landfills into high-quality compost. About 40% of its finished product goes to small farms. The company is positioned to benefit from expanding food scrap recycling requirements in New York State.

Using software to scale impact

Not every impactful investment involves a factory, a manufacturing line or a physical transformation.

Some of the Fund's portfolio companies are using technology to address longstanding challenges in housing, education and workforce development, creating benefits that extend far beyond their own employees.

LenderLogix, a mortgage technology company based in Buffalo's Larkinville neighborhood, serves lenders across the country. The Fund invested in part to help accelerate one product in particular: CRA Analytics.

The platform helps mortgage lenders identify opportunities to expand affordable lending, including showing where homes are available in low- and moderate-income and majority-minority neighborhoods that have historically been underserved.

The goal was to use technology to help more families access homeownership in those communities. The results are encouraging.

CRA Analytics has helped 217 homebuyers purchase homes in underserved neighborhoods, while more than 1,000 Western New Yorkers have learned about housing opportunities they otherwise might not have known about. Eighty-seven percent of those individuals come from marginalized groups.

Arbol, founded by David Gonzalez and Favio Osorio, is addressing another major barrier to opportunity: the cost of higher education.

The Buffalo-based company helps students understand their financial obligations, identify funding gaps and develop personalized plans to pay for college. Students using the platform have been twice as likely to pay their bills on time and half as likely to drop out, according to measured outcomes.

Arbol now works with 18 colleges and more than 15,000 students. At Canisius University, 30 students used the platform to close more than $200,000 in funding gaps. Every one of them re-enrolled.

CAHill Tech, founded by Carley Hill, is helping Western New Yorkers find pathways into good-paying construction careers through digital training and hands-on academies.

Most of its trainees come from marginalized communities. The company has helped place more than 100 Western New Yorkers into jobs and continues to expand partnerships with local labor unions and workforce development organizations.

These companies demonstrate how technology businesses can deliver meaningful community benefits while building scalable commercial products.

Proof, by the numbers

The Fund measures social impact across its portfolio, tracking both the direct contributions of its companies and the broader benefits they create in Western New York.

Since inception, portfolio companies have collectively reported:

• Approximately 1,000 jobs created, including roughly 350 on Buffalo's East Side.
• More than 57% of full-time employees and 47% of management team members from marginalized groups.
• 1.02 million square feet of vacant space brought back into productive use.
• 109,000 tons of waste diverted from landfills and approximately 40 million pounds of greenhouse gas emissions avoided.

These numbers reflect different kinds of progress, from creating economic opportunity for individuals and families to revitalizing physical assets and reducing environmental impacts.

Counting what counts

Some of the most important benefits created by the Fund's portfolio companies don't fit neatly into conventional economic development measurements.

Consider Buffalo FilmWorks.

At the time of a recent measurement, the company had just seven employees on its own payroll. Yet productions at its facilities had supported approximately 450 jobs for local film crews over a six-month period.

Those positions come and go with individual productions, so they don't appear in the company's permanent employment figures. But they represent paychecks, professional opportunity and economic mobility in a growing Western New York industry.

The same principle applies to a mortgage technology company helping families buy homes, or an education technology company helping students stay enrolled in college. Their contributions to the community extend well beyond the number of people they employ.

That's why the Fund has developed a rigorous approach to measuring impact, tracking 47 active indicators aligned with the internationally recognized IRIS+ framework, along with 17 custom metrics tailored to the businesses in its portfolio.

Companies report their progress twice a year, giving the Fund a clearer picture of where its investments are delivering results, where they are falling short and how to make better investment decisions going forward.

It's an important part of the Fund's approach: Holding companies accountable for both their commercial ambitions and their commitments to the community.

A model that works, with room to grow

Western New York has no shortage of ambitious entrepreneurs, promising businesses or people who want to invest in their community's future.

The Fund is always looking to connect with entrepreneurs building great businesses and investors who want their capital to make a difference in Western New York.

To start a conversation, contact [email protected].