The Morning solidarity loan fund has made some people happy!

A loan fund for mutual support

Morning has set up a solidarity loan fund to support one another’s projects. We’re lucky enough to host a whole host of companies, pursuing different activities, of different sizes, operating across different sectors. But all of these organisations - as varied as they are - come together on 2 points:

• The first isn’t the most cheerful. These companies have all suffered from the COVID crisis, but to varying degrees. Depending on the organisation and the business, some cash flows have suffered more than others. The “100% digital” businesses no doubt weathered the shock better, while others are going through painful weeks.
• The second point in common is far more upbeat. All of these organisations work within our coworking spaces. “Coworking”, a lovely little word that starts with “co” like collective, companions, collegial. Well, you should know that Clément Alteresco - the boss of Morning - had a great idea to shine a light on this lovely “co”.

To support its members in difficulty, Morning launched a solidarity loan fund last July. The idea is simple: to offer a mechanism of solidarity in the form of lending and borrowing between companies. The aim is to fund as many small companies in need as possible.

Clément thus brought together 260,000 euros from clients, service providers and members of his network, so we wanted to warmly thank all the lenders who took part in the adventure of the Morning Solidarity Loan Fund: L'Oreal BOLD Ventures - Financière Saint James - OPS [O'Petits Soins] Corporate - CASTALIE - Merci Jack - LA TOUCHE ADVISORY - Nicolas Sirot - GDG Investissements - BDL&Co - LAGUNEO - The French Group.

Nine projects were supported thanks to the solidarity loan fund

Members at Morning, former members, members of the ecosystem or of our networks - in the end, ten companies benefited from this solidarity loan, repayable over one year, with a one-year grace period.

For Latifa Danfakha, founding partner of the l'Hermitage third place, the initiative quite simply meant the survival of their project.

"Our fundraising round, which had been launched before lockdown, was pushed back; we were three months of cash flow short of tying things together until this new deadline, and the amount lent by the Morning Loan Fund represented exactly that".

For this company employing 25 people, the COVID-19 crisis was a huge blow: "We are a place of welcome, and part of our activity was put on hold", but it also gave rise to fine surges of solidarity "lockdown nonetheless allowed us to take part in local surges of solidarity, and the Morning loan fund initiative was welcome within a community (that of third places and coworking spaces) in which some companies came through better than others".

At Mon Super Voisin, a coworker at our Levallois space, it was a similar story. For this young company employing 13 people, the loan fund brought greater peace of mind to its founder, Sylvain Béral, at a stormy time. Between the health crisis and a change of business model...

"We reacted straight away when we received Clément’s email announcing the loan fund; the fact that this initiative came from entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs and via the Morning network really appealed to us! It was a very tricky moment for us: we had no word back on our state-guaranteed loan and no visibility, so this loan represented a month of cash flow and allowed us to keep our whole team".

With the fund, we made it!

What is certain is that this initiative - a touch original and bold - gave us a fine opportunity to reveal our capacity for mutual support. A big thank you to all the lenders who rallied round, and to our volunteer partners who made this project possible: Anaxago and Loansquare.

In July we wrapped up the launch of this project like this: "We’re counting on you - it could be a cracking story if we pull it off!"... We pulled it off, didn’t we?