Small Business Administration - Small Business Investment Companies

Small Business Investment Companies

One of the first steps toward a professionally managed private equity and venture capital industry was the passage of the Small Business Investment Act of 1958. The 1958 Act officially allowed the SBA to license private "Small Business Investment Companies" (SBICs) to help with financing and managing small entrepreneurial businesses in the United States. Passage of the Act addressed concerns raised in a Federal Reserve Board report to Congress that concluded that a major gap existed in the capital markets for long-term funding for growth-oriented small businesses. Additionally, it was thought that fostering entrepreneurial companies would spur technological advances to compete with the Soviet Union. Facilitating the flow of capital through the economy up to the pioneering small concerns in order to stimulate the U.S. economy was and still is today the main goal of the SBIC program. The passage of the Small Business Investment Act of 1958 by the federal government was an important incentive for would-be venture capital organizations. The act provided venture capital firms structured either as SBICs or Minority Enterprise Small Business Investment Companies (MESBICs) access to federal funds which could be leveraged at a ratio of up to 4:1 against privately raised investment funds. In 2005, in response to extensive losses incurred in connection with tech boom investments, the SBA decided to wind down its "Participating Securities" SBIC program, which had provided equity-like SBA backing for equity-oriented SBIC funds. The SBA's "Debenture" SBIC program, the original SBIC vehicle founded in 1958, is still very much alive and healthy and continues to license and contribute capital to SBIC funds. The SBIC program had its highest ever year in Fiscal Year 2010.