The Small Business Administration (SBA) recently announced that it has joined with the US Department of Defense (DoD) to establish the innovative Small Business Investment Company Critical Technologies (SBICCT) Initiative, designed to increase investment in critical technologies vital to the security of the country.

Isabel Casillas Guzmán, SBA administrator, stated:

We are proud to be deepening SBA’s longstanding partnership with DoD to drive forward America’s technological and defensive strength – and in turn America’s national security and prosperity.

During the announcement, Guzmán was joined by Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, where they held a joint letter signing event to announce this groundbreaking milestone in the longstanding partnership between the two organizations, which seeks to grow the national security innovation base and establish the U.S. as a world leader in innovative technologies.

“Earlier this week, I announced the creation of the Department’s Office of Strategic Capital and I’m delighted that OSC’s first official activity will be a partnership with the Small Business Administration. This partnership will help secure funding for critical areas for national defense—and ensure that our warfighters get the capabilities they need, before they need them,” said Austin III.

.@SecDef: Our defense industrial base is unmatched, and we’ve got to keep it that way. pic.twitter.com/kzAxLjDWOZ

— Department of Defense (@DeptofDefense) December 3, 2022

New regulation

Recognizing that defense technologies require a large investment in research and development, the SBA, through this new partnership, expands the Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) program and introduces a new financial instrument called Accual Debenture, which is designed to attract the patient private capital needed to support these innovations and align with the cash flow patterns of startups often required to incubate and scale technology investments.

.@SBAgov and @DeptofDefense have a long history of working together to deliver billions of dollars of funding to advance entrepreneurial R&D and commercialization efforts vital to our national security.

— Isabel Guzman (@SBAIsabel) December 3, 2022

“DoD’s newly established Office of Strategic Capital will leverage SBA’s expertise and successes aligning and scaling public and private capital through its Small Business Investment Company program to address funding gaps in the innovation ecosystem,” added Casillas Guzmán.