Community builder to oversee $15 million investment fund focused on minority start-ups

A veteran northeast Oklahoma City community builder is overseeing a new $15 million investment fund established to promote minority owned start-ups.

Sandino Thompson, backed by Echo, an investment firm founded by Christian Kanady, said the new impact firm is structured to focus on “high opportunity” ventures in east and south Oklahoma City. The firm is starting with $1.5 million from Echo with the goal of raising $15 million.

“I am not a venture capitalist by nature,” Thompson said. “This fund is actually focused on the idea of how do we think about capital creating social returns and economic returns? It’s focused on building businesses in Oklahoma. It will be focused on minority, Black and brown, women-owned businesses and industry.”

As a partner and managing director of Echo’s Impact investing, Thompson brings more than 20 years managing multimillion-dollar commercial and residential construction projects. He has extensive involvement in community and economic development initiatives focused on neighborhood stability and revitalization, including the Eastpoint retail development along NE 23.

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'The rising tide hasn't lifted all boats'

Thompson said Echo Impact aims to invest in and incubate solutions that empower, build, and improve overlooked communities and drive inclusive development as Oklahoma City’s momentum continues to pick up speed.

He envisions the fund having a presence at the future Foster Center when the former YMCA at 614 NE 4 is renovated into a business support center for minority-owned small businesses. The project is funded with $16.7 million from MAPS 4.

“As Oklahoma City’s renaissance story continues to be written, the rising tide hasn’t lifted all boats,” Thompson said. “Echo Impact is designed to advance industry-driven, economic inclusion that will further benefit underrepresented neighborhoods and their unrealized intrinsic value.”

“Echo firmly believes that making money and doing good are not mutually exclusive,” Kanady said. “Echo Impact is more than an investment strategy aimed at financial returns – it’s a mandate at the core of our mission as investors, partners, and community builders.”

In addition to his history of community building and drawing federal grants for rebuilding minority neighborhoods, Thompson is a partner in EightTwenty, a solar panel installation company located at 1825 N Walnut Ave. The firm, started in 2020, employs about 85 people.

“EightTwenty taught me the opportunity that exists for creating jobs,” Thompson said. “EightTwenty is the prototype for me for how this fund can scale up. They are very Oklahoma based. We saw an opportunity. We realized Oklahoma is one of the top sunniest places in the country. We saw an opportunity to become a new hub for energy and we placed this business on the east side.”

Thompson sees some opportunities possible with ongoing investment by Kanady and Echo in other ventures including Wheeler Bio, Prairie Surf Studios and several aerospace ventures focused on unmanned flights.

“Echo has invested in a lot of high-growth companies,” Thompson said. “With Wheeler, they have a supply chain where they are buying from suppliers out of the state or out of the country. Where they are buying sterile water or super stringent packaging, we should ask if there are companies we can establish to meet that need.”

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Sandino Thompson picked to oversee $15 million minority start-up fund