SBA Administrator Guzman Announces First SBIC Critical Technologies Initiative Licensee at JPMorgan VetVC Summit
2024年6月29日 - 5:18AM
On Thursday, June 27,
Administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman,
head of the
U.S. Small Business Administration
(SBA) and the voice in President Biden’s Cabinet
for America’s more than 33 million small businesses, traveled to
New York City to attend the VetVC Summit hosted by JPMorgan Chase.
Administrator Guzman delivered remarks at the summit, highlighting
the vital role that venture capital and growth financing play in
enabling small businesses and startups to develop and scale.
Administrator Guzman also announced that the SBA has licensed
its first Small Business Investment Company Critical Technologies
Initiative (SBICCT) licensee, Bluestone Investment Partners.
Bluestone Investment Partners is a private equity firm that invests
in small businesses with a focus on the defense and government
technology markets. The $150 million fund will make equity
investments in portfolio companies with a focus on critical
technology areas, helping to ensure the future of American national
security.
The SBICCT Initiative is a joint effort based on a Memorandum of
Agreement between the SBA and the Department of Defense (DoD) to
increase private capital investment in critical technologies. The
SBICCT Initiative is executed by SBA’s Office of Investment and
Innovation (OII) and the DoD’s Office of Strategic Capital (OSC),
coupling SBA’s expertise and experience executing the established
and highly successful Small Business Investment Company (SBIC)
program with the DoD’s robust scientific and technical expertise
and national security mission.
Under the Biden-Harris Administration, the SBA has a strong
record supporting veteran-owned small businesses. In Fiscal Year
2023 alone, the SBA backed $1.2 billion in loans to Veterans – a
40% increase in dollar value under this Administration.
Additionally, the SBA continues to expand the footprint of its
Veterans Business Outreach Centers (VBOC), which support the
Agency’s highly successful Boots to Business, Reboot, and the new
Military Spouses Pathway to Business Program. The SBA under the
Biden-Harris Administration has also launched a simplified VetCert
system which has certified more than 15,500 veterans and delivered
record-breaking levels of government contracting to
service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses (SDVOSB).
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About the U.S. Small Business Administration
The U.S. Small Business Administration helps power the American
dream of business ownership. As the only go-to resource and voice
for small businesses backed by the strength of the federal
government, the SBA empowers entrepreneurs and small business
owners with the resources and support they need to start, grow, or
expand their businesses, or recover from a declared disaster. It
delivers services through an extensive network of SBA field offices
and partnerships with public and private organizations. To learn
more, visit www.sba.gov.
Christine Saah Nazer
U.S. Small Business Administration
202-756-0304
Christine.saahnazer@sba.gov