Behind The Deals

Entrepreneur, June, 2000 by Cynthia E. Griffin

While recent megadeals inked between name-brand venture capitalists and budding Internet tycoons receive much of the media spotlight, there remains a community of private investors who quietly serve as the industry's workhorses--Small Business Investment Companies (SBICs).

According to the SBA, these government-leveraged, privately owned venture capital funds invested $4.2 billion in 3,100 deals in fiscal year 1999 and executed 53 percent of the transactions made in the venture capital industry. The average deal size totaled $1.35 million.