The northern Indigenous business incubator, EntrepreNorth, has launched as its own charitable non-profit.

The shift to become an autonomous, Indigenous-led and northern-led entity allows the organization to develop an identity and internal structures that aligns with their values, said co-Xina Cowan, the CEO of EntrepreNorth.  

“From day one, EntrepreNorth has been surrounded by the most brilliant and dedicated and passionate people who are all in support of entrepreneurs building sustainable businesses and livelihoods in the North; and in ways that really align with their cultural values and their skills,” said Cowan.

The organization was founded by Cowan, Benjamin Scott and Kristin Richard.

“As an organization, we’ve always carried that spirit of innovation and entrepreneurialism within ourselves. So it’s been a part of our DNA to want to reflect that in how we lead and how we operate,” Cowan said.

The majority of the board of directors that guide the governance of the project are northern and Indigenous, which was an intentional decision to specify in their bylaws. 

For eight years the organization operated as a project of the MakeWay Charitable Society’s northern platform, which Cowan said helped EntrepreNorth grow their capacity to get to this point.

During that time, the organization grew from a staff of one to a staff of 13 and expanded their programs from their annual Growth Program to adding business ideation workshops, an Indigenous facilitator training, and developing an app for northern Indigenous business owners to access tools and resources. 

With its newfound independence, the organization is better positioned to support the communities they serve across the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut with more flexibility in how they provide access to funding and support to entrepreneurs. 

New impact fund launching next month

Kristin Richard is also the managing director of the Sinew Impact Fund that EntrepreNorth is launching in May. 

“We’re raising $10 million to support Indigenous entrepreneurs with access to relational, non-extractive capital,” said Richard. 

The fund will provide a variety of financing, such as regular debt financing, equity investments and revenue-based financing. The fund is designed to support early-stage Indigenous-led and owned businesses that want to have a local impact in their northern communities. 

“And we don’t want to be telling the entrepreneurs what that impact is that their business has. We really want to work with them so they have the autonomy to decide what their impact in their community is.” 

Richard said the fund is directly tied to EntrepreNorth’s charitable purpose to advance the economic wellbeing of northern Indigenous entrepreneurs by providing “wraparound support” that will support them to grow and scale their businesses. 

“Entrepreneurs deserve to have the whole package as they’re going through that journey of growth from, you know, just having an idea to getting ready to actually launch a business and create the kind of impact they want to have,” added Cowan. 

“As entrepreneurs continue to grow, our hope is that [EntrepreNorth] can really be a culturally supportive hub for entrepreneurs to get lots of different things that they need, whether it be, you know, education, capital advocacy, storytelling and at the end of the day: access to a really supportive network of people who who want to walk alongside them on their journey.”