An SBIC Increases the Odds of Black-Owned Businesses Receiving Private Equity

The Enterprise Center (TEC) is blazing a trail with its $50 million Innovative Capital Growth Fund, demonstrating how private sector investment can be leveraged through the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Small Business Invest Companies (SBIC) program to increase private-equity investment in Black-owned businesses. Located in Philadelphia, TEC works to connect minority- and women-owned businesses to government and corporate contract opportunities through supplier-diversity programs. As the operator of two MBDA Business Centers (Pennsylvania and New Jersey), TEC is uniquely positioned to help early-stage and mature growth-oriented companies. The Innovative Capital Growth Fund received its license from the SBA in February 2022.

“We have a flawed system. Funders give us money for programs with unrealistic metrics,” said Della Clark, president at The Enterprise Center and Partner at Innovate Capital Growth Fund. “They don’t provide money for follow-on capital to that program.”

The Innovative Capital Growth Fund aims to correct this inequity by providing much-needed capital, allowing Black-owned businesses to grow, hire people, develop innovative products or services, and acquire other companies. It will help create a diverse private equity industry reflective of the U.S. population.