SBA Announces $2.5M Growth Accelerator Fund Competition

The Small Business Administration (SBA) announced a $2.5 million funding competition for accelerators and other entrepreneurial ecosystem models to compete for monetary prizes of $50,000 each to fund operating budgets. The Growth Accelerator Fund Competition is open to business accelerators, incubators, coworking spaces, shared makerspaces, and other entrepreneurial ecosystem models from across the country.

Through this program, the SBA hopes to help fill geographic gaps in the entrepreneurial ecosystem space by supporting the development of accelerators and other eligible models in parts of the country where there are fewer conventional sources of access to capital (e.g., venture capital and angel capital investors). Applications also are encouraged from entities that are run by and support women or other underrepresented groups. According to the SBA press release, special consideration will be given to accelerator models that support manufacturing. Applications are due August 2. Read the announcement…