CIC, the Cambridge-based owner of lab and office space aimed at startup companies, has been selected by the U.S. Department of Commerce for funding to help underserved entrepreneurs grow and scale their businesses.
Vice President Kamala Harris announced the awardees last week for the Minority Business Development Agency’s Capital Readiness Program. CIC is the only organization serving Massachusetts entrepreneurs to be selected for the honor.
Once the awards are finalized for the $125 million technical assistance program, the recipients will launch and operate business incubators or accelerators for underserved entrepreneurs.
The aim is to prepare these founders to secure capital from the $10 billion State Small Business Credit Initiative and other capital sources.
The MBDA became a permanent federal agency in November 2021 as part of President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Its Capital Readiness Program is funded by the Department of Treasury’s State Small Business Credit Initiative and was reauthorized under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 to drive new investment and capital to small businesses.
“The purpose of the Capital Readiness Program is to provide every American entrepreneur an equitable shot at building a successful business,” Donald Cravins, Jr., under secretary of commerce for Minority Business Development, said in a statement. “Through the Capital Readiness Program, MBDA will prepare socially and economically disadvantaged entrepreneurs to take advantage of this historic funding opportunity.”
Cravins said that once the final awards are made, the 43 Capital Readiness Program recipients will join the MBDA’s network of business and specialty centers supporting entrepreneurs.
CIC builds and operates innovation campuses for companies around the world. The Cambridge-based organization also has locations in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, St. Louis, Rotterdam, Tokyo and Warsaw. These campuses cover more than one million square feet of shared workspace, wet labs and tech-enabled event space. CIC also hosts innovation-related programming.
A spokesperson for CIC said this grant will allow the company to launch the CIC Social Impact Program. The program will be open to early-stage businesses owned by Black and Indigenous people, as well as people of color, veterans and female-identifying entrepreneurs. CIC said its proposed program will run for four years and span multiple Eastern Massachusetts communities.
CIC declined to share the exact amount of funding it could receive from the federal government, but a spokesperson said the 43 awardees could receive up to $3 million each of the $125 million in total funding.
“We are honored to be recognized by the White House and selected for this prestigious grant which will have a tremendous impact in Massachusetts,” Stas Gayshan, general counsel at CIC, said in a statement. “Historically, underrepresented founders and entrepreneurs still lack full access to appropriate networking, growth capital, and markets. The CIC Social Impact Program’s efforts are directed to remediate those historical and systemic barriers by providing them with value-driven business networks and early-stage capital solutions.”
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