SBA Growth Accelerator Fund Competition to Accelerate Innovation-Driven Ecosystem Building Across the Country with Up to $9 Million in Prize Awards
Entrepreneur Support Organizations Will Compete in Two Stages for $75,000 to $150,000; 2025 Application Opens Jan. 8
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. The submission period for entries opened at 12:01 PM ET on January 8, 2025, and ended on February 7, 2025, at 11:59 PM PT, with prize awards announced by April.
Stage One offers $75,000 in cash prizes to organizations that identify challenges within their innovation ecosystems and propose unique solutions. The SBA encourages submissions from a broad range of organizations with a collaborative vision to nurture a national ecosystem for access to entrepreneurship.
Applicants are asked to align their application with one of the following 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
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
More Information
GAFC Pre-Application Webinar - An informational webinar for potential Stage One applicants.
When: January 9, 2025
Time: 3-4 PM EST
The webinar is free and open to the public.
Historical Information about GAFC
In 2024, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) awarded $3 Million in cash prizes to ESOs for impactful approaches to catalyze strategic ecosystem partnerships to build community and organizational capacity for the successful launch, growth, and scale of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)-based entrepreneurs and startups.
- Learn more about each organization by visiting the 2024 GAFC Public Directory.
- Read the press release with our 2024 GAFC Stage Two awardees.
- Read the press release with our 2024 GAFC Stage One awardees.
- Read the 2024 GAFC Competition announcement.
