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Pacific Community Ventures Named Inaugural Circle Foundation Awardee, Post- IPO, to Advance Ethical AI Infrastructure for Community Lenders

September 22, 2026

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OAKLAND, CA — [September 22, 2026] — Pacific Community Ventures (PCV), a leading nonprofit Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) and early impact investing pioneer, has been named one of Circle Foundation’s two inaugural domestic philanthropic grant recipients. The funding will support PCV’s Radiant Data Hub to expand ethical AI infrastructure for peer mission-driven finance organizations. The announcement was made today at the 2026 Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting in New York City.

In 2025, Circle Internet Group, Inc(opens in new tab). (NYSE:CRCL) established Circle Foundation(opens in new tab) to advance financial resilience and inclusion through strategic grantmaking and systems-level investments. Seeded by Circle’s Pledge 1% equity commitment, Circle Foundation channels Circle’s financial resources, expertise, and partnerships toward creating lasting economic impact.

PCV is one of the U.S.’s first impact investing funds, launched to invest in making the American Dream of economic mobility more accessible to underserved entrepreneurs. It has a unique model integrating restorative capital, impact measurement, and advocacy, to build good jobs with dignity and climate resilience in communities often overlooked by traditional finance. In 2025, PCV acquired a longtime data and AI start-up partner, and launched the Radiant Data Hub, a first-of-its-kind AI-enabled data infrastructure platform built as a shared service for community lenders. The acquisition included a unique voice AI tool called “AIKKA” that gathers qualitative feedback in any major language spoken in the world, used in PCV’s national Good Jobs community of practice over two years. PCV’s new Radiant Data Hub partners with CDFIs and mission-driven organizations to strengthen their use of data and emerging technologies for impact storytelling, while advancing ethical AI and data practices with the launch of the CDFI field’s first Ethical AI policy(opens in new tab).

In Fall 2026, PCV will launch the CDFI industry’s first-ever Data Commons model: a nationally representative algorithm trained on mission-driven loan portfolios, to unlock access to affordable capital at scale nationwide, while enabling participating CDFIs to improve predictive impact underwriting models, access shared benchmarking and analytics, sector-level intelligence, compare fund performance, and better serve small businesses across the country. Circle Foundation’s grant to Pacific Community Ventures will support the work of Radiant Data Hub, expanding access to the state-of-the-art AI adoption and governance services in the community finance ecosystem.

PCV is honored to be one of the first recipients of the Circle Foundation’s domestic philanthropic grants . We stand at a pivotal moment in history where the power of innovation can either supercharge economic opportunity, or leave communities behind. We are proud to have support from our mission-driven finance peers and investors to build a future where technology is harnessed in ethical ways and always keeping human judgment and community impact at the center.“- Bulbul Gupta, President and CEO, Pacific Community Ventures

At Circle Foundation, we’re proud to support initiatives that don’t just help one borrower but change how an entire ecosystem works, said Elisabeth Carpenter, Chief Strategic Engagement Officer, Circle Internet Group, and Founding Chair, Circle Foundation. Pacific Community Ventures is building exactly that kind of AI-powered infrastructure. PCV’s Radiant Data Hub gives community lenders the tools to find, fund, and prove impact at scale.

The CDFI grants represent Circle Foundation’s inaugural domestic philanthropic donations and reflect its theory of change: that the most scalable interventions in financial inclusion are investments in the systems, platforms, and data infrastructure that allow mission-driven lendersto reach further and prove their impact more clearly. The Foundation has also supported global humanitarian finance work, including through its support of the UN Digital Hub of Treasury Solutions (DHoTS), which seeks to streamline cross-border aid delivery through stablecoin technology, and fellow U.S. CDFI, Accion Opportunity Fund.

About Pacific Community Ventures
Pacific Community Ventures is a non-profit community impact investor that unlocks economic opportunity and climate resilience for small business owners and workers. Through access to
affordable capital, pro bono business advising, ethical technology and AI, we partner with entrepreneurs to grow, hire, and prosper.

About Circle Foundation
In 2025, Circle Internet Group, Inc. (NYSE:CRCL) established Circle Foundation, a donoradvised fund managed by Fidelity Charitable, to advance financial resilience and inclusion through strategic grantmaking and systems-level investments. Seeded by Circle’s Pledge 1% equity commitment, the Circle Foundation channels Circle’s financial resources, expertise, and partnerships toward creating lasting economic impact.