The US Department of Energy and Small Business Administration have launched an initiative to direct private capital toward small businesses developing technologies considered critical to energy security, manufacturing and national security, the agencies said on Tuesday.
The US DOE and the SBA signed a memorandum of agreement to establish the Small Business Investment Company-Energy Initiative.
The program will combine DOE's technical and commercialization expertise with the SBA's established investment framework for small businesses.
The agencies said that the SBIC initiative has invested $147 billion in US small businesses since 1958, while companies backed by the program have created or supported 10.6 million jobs since 1995.
The SBA's Small Business Investment Company program currently has about $58 billion in combined portfolio value.
Under the arrangement, the DOE's Office of Technology Commercialization will identify strategic technology priorities and provide technical and commercialization support while helping connect companies with investors.
The initial priorities include technologies tied to US energy production and security, critical minerals, advanced manufacturing and materials, and artificial intelligence, quantum information science, semiconductors, and next-generation computing.
The initiative will also target companies involved in the DOE's commercialization ecosystem, including recipients of its Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs, the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, the Technology Commercialization Fund and the Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program.
Companies commercializing technologies developed through the department's national laboratories will also be eligible for investment opportunities.