MO deploys $17.5M to small businesses through Treasury funding

Missouri deployed $17.5 million to grow small businesses statewide through June this year, representing 65 percent of allocated State Small Business Credit Initiative funding it is receiving from the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

The SSBCI's first annual report, released yesterday, shows loans and investments supported more than 4,600 small businesses nationwide to the tune of $1.9 billion during 2012. According to the report, the program helped create or save 53,000 jobs and nearly 80 percent of loans and investments went to businesses with 10 or fewer employees, according to a news release.

“SSBCI’s innovative funding structure allows each state to design its own small-business support programs in response to local economic conditions and capital needs,” SSBCI Director Cliff Kellogg said in the release. “These federal funds have helped states create more than 70 new small-business programs, building a new network of credit support across the country."

The SSBCI was created three years ago by the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010, through which the Treasury was able to award nearly $1.5 billion to fund programs supporting small businesses. The program is expected to push up to $15 billion in new private-sector lending or investment in small companies, the release said.