RISE Louisville is a nonprofit that was formed in 2014 to support immigrants and refugees in their entrepreneurial endeavors through a customized educational and mentoring program.

The concept for RISE Louisville was born from Suhas Kulkarni’s realization that Louisville has an untapped pool of talent for city-wide economic development in the form of immigrants and refugees who have made, or could make, Louisville their home. Suhas – an immigrant entrepreneur himself and former Director of the Mayor’s Office for Globalization – saw that given organized assistance, this population has the potential to become drivers of economic growth in our area.

RISE Louisville was created to focus on ways Louisville can compete in a multicultural world and to engage its civic, cultural and professional communities. In this way, RISE Louisville supports the Office for Globalization and its three-pronged mission:

• To assist entrepreneurial new Americans achieve self-sufficiency and success in our city.
• To enhance and encourage multi-culturalism in our city
• To engage in economic development through global economic outreach