SBA Financing of Early-Stage VC

Extracted 15DEC2011 from http://www.pehub.com/128631/uncle-sam-wants-you-to-raise-an-early-stage-vc-fund/

The federal government played nursemaid to the venture capital market through its SBIC program launched in 1958. Now it’s looking to the same program to help guide VC through its mid-life crisis...

the SBIC program for the last two years, is supervising the carve-out of a $1 billion allocation for the Early-Stage Innovation Fund. The pool would be allocated, $200 million per year over the next five years, to match money raised by venture capital firms from private investors... Expect at least four venture firms to be awarded licenses each year, and, given the tight fundraising market, the SBA is likely to be inundated with applications...

The Early-Stage Innovation Fund is part of the Startup America initiative launched by the White House in early 2011 as a way “to celebrate, inspire, and accelerate high-growth entrepreneurship throughout the nation.”