The DOD’s Office of Strategic Capital (OSC) and the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Office of Investment and Innovation (OII) announced their intention to sign a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on March 10 at the Southwest Festival in Austin. This agreement outlines future OSC and SBA collaboration and builds on the December 3, 2022 announcement of collaboration on the SBIC Critical Technologies (SBICCT) initiative.
SBICCT represents OSC’s first program initiative, a joint initiative with SBA’s highly successful Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) program. Increases early-stage investment in critical technology fields that require long-term, low-return “patient capital,” such as semiconductors, advanced materials, and biotechnology.
The SBICCT initiative is supported by new proposed SBA regulations to expand the SBIC program and introduce a new financing instrument – the Accrual Debenture. This proposed equipment will better match the cash flow requirements of startups in the hardware technology space and provide these companies with the “patient capital” needed to become thriving, USG and DOD equipment partners.
“In its 65-year history, SBA’s Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) program has seeded and grown some of the most innovative and successful businesses in the world,” said Bailey DeVries, associate administrator of SBA’s Office of Investment and Innovation. “From semiconductors to personal computers to electronic vehicles, public-private SBIC partnerships have spurred the growth of new industries by growing startups and growing small businesses, and they’ve met the vital needs of local supply chains and communities across the country.
“This agreement represents a natural extension of our long-standing partnership with the Department of Defense and a deliberate commitment by both of our agencies to provide capital and resources aligned to America’s national security mission with private funds.”
“The partnership with the SBA has been great, enabling us to restore the SBIC program to Homeland Security by helping technology companies and capital-intensive small businesses address today’s most pressing national security supply chain needs,” said OSC Director Dr. Jason Rathje. We can use new investment funds to provide patient capital sources for these critical technologies by licensing new limited partnerships focused on verticals in technology sectors.”
The Office of Strategic Capital seeks to develop, coordinate, and implement partner capital programs to attract and expand private capital investment to achieve the objectives of the National Security Strategy. The SBICCT initiative is the first of several tools the OSC will use to align and balance private capital toward national security objectives.