Lucky 7

Entrepreneur, Dec, 2001

The SBA-administered New Markets Venture Capital Program, a dollar-for-dollar matching program, has conditionally approved seven firms investing in economically depressed areas: Athens, Ohio-based Adena Ventures; Wiscasset, Mainebased CEI Community Ventures Fund LLC; College Park, Maryland-based Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship; Philadelphia-based Murex Investments I LP; University, Pennsylvania-based Pennsylvania Rural Opportunities Fund; Oak Ridge, Tennessee-based The Southern Appalachian Fund LP; and Phoenix-based Southwest Development Fund LLC.

Funds must meet the program's January 9,2002, deadline for raising at least $5 million in equity investment funds and an additional 30 percent of that total in technical assistance grant money, but it's not too early to make advances. "Since we received conditional approval, we essentially began operating," says Lynn Gellermann, president and COO of Adena Ventures, which has already raised $12.5 million-plus in equity funds.

A second round of approvals is planned for spring 2002.

JENNIFER PELLET (jpellets@aol.com) is a freelance writer in New York City specializing in business and finance.

BUZZ

DUTY CALLS: Announced in the wake of the September terrorist attacks, the SBA's Military Reservist Economic Injury Disaster Loan program (MREIDL) was eerily well-timed. The program, which offers support for companies that have key employees called to active duty, debuted just days after an announcement that an expected 35,500 reservists would be called in the coming months.

Yet MREIDL was two years in the making, following the Veterans Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development Act of 1999 after the Bosnian conflict. Affected businesses can apply for up to $1.5 million at a maximum interest rate of 4 percent and a term of up to 30 years, says the SBA's Carol Chastang. "The idea is to help keep small businesses, which can be devastated by the loss of a key person, alive during that period."

Companies can apply for a MREIDL by filing an application with their regional SBA disaster area office anytime up until 90 days after the employee is discharged, says Chastang. "The business essentially has to prove that a key employee was called up for an extended period of time for a military conflict and that the business suffered economic loss because that employee or business owner was away."