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USDA Announces Launch of $100M Rural Business Investment Company

Thursday, October 20, 2016

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced the launch of the McLarty Capital Partners’ Rural Business Investment Company (RBIC) – a new private investment fund with the potential to inject $100 million into growth-oriented, small businesses across rural America. As the fifth RBIC to launch since 2014, McLarty Capital Partners’ RBIC is part of the Made in Rural America initiative, an ongoing effort by the Obama administration to attract private sector capital to investment opportunities in rural America and drive more economic growth in rural communities.

  • Read more about USDA Announces Launch of $100M Rural Business Investment Company

USDA Announces Investments in Projects to Support Rural Prosperity, Facilitate Private Investments

Thursday, August 6, 2015

Last week, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) held a special meeting that include approximately 100 investors and venture capitalists to help stimulate private sector investments in rural infrastructure projects with the potential to spur economic development in small towns and rural communities across the country. Through its U.S.

  • Read more about USDA Announces Investments in Projects to Support Rural Prosperity, Facilitate Private Investments

USDA, Private VCs Raising $125M for Rural Startups

Thursday, May 7, 2015

Two private venture firms have committed to raising a total of $125 million to invest in rural, early stage startups under the Department of Agriculture's Rural Business Investment Program. The program was launched last April, when Advantage Capital Partners launched the first $150 million Rural Business Investment Company (RBIC) fund.

  • Read more about USDA, Private VCs Raising $125M for Rural Startups

President Announces Capital Initiatives for Rural Small Businesses

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Speaking during a Rural Economic Forum at Northeast Iowa Community College in Peosta, IA, President Obama announced several new initiatives to promote economic growth in rural areas, including two new capital programs. The Small Business Administration (SBA) will partner with USDA to double its current rate of investment in rural small businesses to $350 million over the next five years. This will be accomplished through SBA's Impact Investment Fund.

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Recent news from the SSTI Digest

Differences in industry concentrations of VDO and VC investments

Wednesday, August 26, 2026
Data reveal that policymakers should not equate strong Venture Development Organizations (VDOs) with private venture capital companies; the purpose of creating public policy to increase the availability of innovation-centered risk capital can be lost if one presumes VCs and VDOs are the same. While there are many similarities between individual VDOs and VC funds, important differences in industry concentration emerge when the two groups are compared in aggregate, which may result in different long-term economic impacts.  Effective VDOs are important drivers of regional innovation and of pushing emerging tech businesses forward. VC, on the other hand, can play an extractive role, particularly in markets with scarce equity finance options.
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What could a “new golden age” of science mean for research and commercialization?

Wednesday, August 26, 2026
SSTI’s recent TBED Community of Practice webinar took up a practical question raised by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy report, Science: A New Golden Age: if federal science policy shifts, what changes will universities, commercialization, and regional innovation organizations need to make? The presentation outlined a research system that could look considerably different from the one that has developed since Vannevar Bush’s Science, the Endless Frontier.
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New federal rules, both proposed and finalized, will impact small businesses

Thursday, August 27, 2026
A recent flurry of new rules, both proposed and finalized, may interest small business owners or those who advise them. The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has proposed two new rules. The first, Revised Size Standards Methodology, will update SBA’s methodology for determining which businesses qualify as “small.” The second, on Small Business Size Standards, would consolidate the number of industry-specific size standards and raise size standard thresholds. 
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