NEW YORK CITY, June 28, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 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).

###

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