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As part of President Obama's "Start-Up America Initiative" SBA is proposing a new program that intends to commit up to $1 billion in SBA guaranteed leverage over a five year period to selected early stage venture funds.  This initiative is intended to promote American innovation and job creation by encouraging private sector investment in job-creating early stage small businesses. 

Early stage small businesses face difficult challenges accessing capital, particularly those without the necessary assets or cash flow for traditional bank funding. 

The SBIC Program is one of many financial assistance programs available through the U.S. Small Business Administration.  The structure of the program is unique in that SBICs are privately owned and managed investment funds, licensed and regulated by SBA, that use their own capital plus funds borrowed with an SBA guarantee to make equity and debt investments in qualifying small businesses.

Proposed regulations for the Early Stage SBIC Initiative were posted on December 9, 2011 and SBA is seeking comments on these regulations.  The comment period will close February 7, 2012, any individual or organization can submit a comment by visiting www.sba.gov/inv/earlystage.