Mary-Louise Hoffman
The Small Business Administration has awarded 68 business accelerators with a $50,000 grant each as winners of SBA’s third annual Growth Accelerator Fund Competition.
SBA said Thursday that a panel of government and industry professionals chose the winning accelerators out of more than 400 grant applicants from across the U.S.
The agency facilitated the competition in partnership with the National Institutes of Health, Education Department and National Science Foundation.
“Accelerators serve entrepreneurs in a broad set of industries and sectors – from manufacturing and tech start-ups, to farming and biotech – with many focused on creating a diverse and inclusive small business community,” said SBA Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet.
“These awards deliver on a longstanding commitment at SBA to strengthen and modernize these support systems especially in parts of the country where access to capital has been a major barrier to starting a business,” she added.
The accelerators will report job creation, fundraising, startup establishment and corporate sponsorship metrics to SBA for one year, the agency noted.
“We reported to Congress 138 winners from 2014 and 2015 – made up of 5,000 companies that have raised $1.5 billion and employ nearly 20,000 people,” Contreras-Sweet said.
Click here to view the SBA’s full list of the 2016 Growth Accelerator Competition Award winners.
