Startup America Initiative Launches
Startup America is the White House initiative to celebrate, inspire, and accelerate high-growth entrepreneurship throughout the nation.This coordinated public/private effort brings together an alliance of the country’s most innovative entrepreneurs, corporations, universities, foundations, and other leaders, working in concert with a wide range of federal agencies to dramatically increase the prevalence and success of America’s entrepreneurs. Startup America is an important element of President Obama’s overall innovation strategy. The core goals of Startup America are to increase the number of new high-growth firms that are creating economic growth, innovation, and quality jobs; celebrate and honor entrepreneurship as a core American value and source of competitive advantage; and inspire and empower an ever-greater diversity of communities and individuals to build great American companies. http://www.startupamericapartnership.org/
The Small Business Administration (SBA) will commit $2 billion as a match to private sector investment over the next five years in promising high-growth companies.
$1 Billion Impact Investment Fund: SBA will commit $1 billion to those funds that invest growth capital in companies located in underserved communities. This will include investing in economically distressed areas as well as those companies in emerging sectors such as clean energy. SBA will provide up to a 2:1 match to private capital raised by these funds, partnering with private investors to target “impact” investments.
$1 Billion Early-Stage Innovation Fund: Early-stage companies face difficult challenges accessing capital, particularly those without the necessary assets or cash flow for traditional bank funding. For high-growth companies, the gap is particularly acute in the so called “Valley of Death” for financing rounds between $1-4 million. Over the past 4 years only 6% of all venture capital has been deployed in that stage, with 70% of the financings going to only three states – California, Massachusetts and New York. The Innovation Fund will target this gap, providing a 1:1 match to private capital raised by early stage seed funds.