New Initiative Pledges $169 Mil for Small Biz

State Small Business Credit Initiative Created As Part of 2010 Jobs Act

Massachusetts will steer nearly $169 million in U.S. Treasury funding toward loans and seed money for small businesses and entrepreneurs, the Baker administration announced Tuesday.

Congress created the State Small Business Credit Initiative as part of the 2010 Jobs Act, then reauthorized it with another $10 billion as part of the American Rescue Plan Act last year, according to the Baker administration. Massachusetts is now in line for about $168.6 million designed to promote growth of smaller employers, particularly those owned and controlled by people from underrepresented or disadvantaged backgrounds.

The Baker administration unveiled its plans for how that money will flow to Bay State businesses, tapping the quasi-public agencies MassDevelopment, Massachusetts Growth Capital Corporation and MassVentures as avenues.

MGCC will launch a new Community Loan Fund Guarantee, which will guarantee up to 50 percent of a principal loan amount originating with a bank or nonprofit community lender up to an average of $250,000, and will bulk up its existing commercial lending program that offers direct loans to small business borrowers.

Other programs that will use the federal funding injection include MassDevelopment loans for uses such as real estate and equipment improvements and MassVentures’s Deep Tech Diversity Venture Fund, which provides capital investments to “deep tech” startups in fields such as advanced manufacturing and materials, robotics, and synthetic biology.

“This major federal investment will directly benefit our economy by empowering small businesses and entrepreneurs in Massachusetts — especially our smallest and underserved businesses — with the capital they need to grow,” Housing and Economic Development Secretary Mike Kennealy said in a statement.