The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is offering up to $9,000,000 in prize awards through the 2025 Growth Accelerator Fund Competition (GAFC), to accelerate the growth and maturity of innovation-based entrepreneurship ecosystems.
Donor Name: U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA)
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Awards and Prizes
Deadline: 01/31/2025
Size of the Grant: $100,000 to $500,000
Grant Duration: Grant Duration Not Mentioned
Details:
This competition seeks to identify impactful and innovative submissions from Entrepreneur Support Organizations (ESOs) that will support entrepreneurs and small business owners in undercapitalized regions, industries, and communities.
These prizes will build ESO capacity, connectivity, and community across entrepreneurs, nonprofits, investors, universities, philanthropies, corporations, and other ecosystem stakeholders to ultimately drive the successful launch, growth, and scale of innovation-driven small businesses – encouraging new entrants into the innovation economy and driving entrepreneurial dynamism across America.
Competition Goals
- Accelerate the growth and maturity of innovation-based entrepreneurship ecosystems across the United States.
- Strengthen American innovation ecosystems by catalyzing and/or strengthening capacity, connectivity, and community between entrepreneurs, nonprofits, investors, universities, philanthropies, corporations, and other ecosystem stakeholders.
- Incentivize innovation ecosystem stakeholders to provide open and inclusive opportunities for new entrants to participate in the innovation economy within undercapitalized regions, industries, and communities.
- Increase the pipeline and success of innovation-driven entrepreneurs and small businesses in accessing the necessary capital and other resources to advance their growth, driving entrepreneurial dynamism in their ecosystem.
Funding Information
The 2025 competition offers $75,000 to $150,000 in prize awards during two stages to organizations to accelerate the growth and maturity of innovation ecosystems.
GAFC Theme Areas
- Lab-to-Market
- Bridging the gap between research and commercialization, in areas including but not limited to:
- National and Economic Security
- Domestic Manufacturing and Production
- Biotechnology
- Other critical and emerging technologies
- Bridging the gap between research and commercialization, in areas including but not limited to:
- Capital Formation
- Expanding investment access for entrepreneurs and small businesses during the stages of business formation and business growth, through activities including but not limited to:
- Creating new funding mechanisms
- Developing more financial stakeholders in the innovation ecosystem
- Improving investment literacy among entrepreneurs
- Other mechanisms focused on addressing challenges to investment access for entrepreneurs and small businesses.
- Expanding investment access for entrepreneurs and small businesses during the stages of business formation and business growth, through activities including but not limited to:
Eligibility Criteria
This Competition is open only to:
- Citizens or permanent residents of the United States who are at least eighteen (18) years of age at the time of their submission of an entry (or teams of such individuals).
- Private entities, such as corporations or other organizations, both for-profit and non- profit, that are incorporated or organized in and maintain a primary place of business in the United States, and that are not owned or controlled by a foreign government or foreign government-sponsored entity.
- Individuals submitting on behalf of corporations, nonprofits, or other organizations or groups of individuals (such as an academic class or other team) must meet the eligibility requirements for individual Contestants
Prizes will be awarded in a two-stage process:
- Stage One: $75,000 cash prizes will be competitively awarded to ESOs clearly describing the current state of their innovation ecosystem, the challenge they intend to address in their ecosystem that is affecting entrepreneurs and small businesses, their hypothesis of potential solutions, and their specific role in the solutions. Successful submissions will emphasize unique approaches to innovation ecosystem challenges, identify the stakeholders within the ecosystem who are affected by the challenge, demonstrate an understanding of stakeholder incentives, and explain their theory of change for addressing the identified problem.
- Stage Two: $150,000 cash prizes will be competitively awarded to ESOs to scale proposed solutions from Stage One in support of entrepreneurs and small businesses and share their learnings with the SBA. Successful submissions will present the outcomes of Stage One, provide a detailed sustainment plan for scaling successful aspects of their solution, and demonstrate how their approach can be integrated into their broader innovation ecosystem. Only 2025 GAFC Stage One Awardees are eligible to apply for Stage Two.
For more information, visit SBA.
