We are pleased to announce, for the sixth year in a row, Advantage Capital has been named among Real Leaders Top Impact Companies for our work of supporting small businesses, financing affordable homes and expanding renewable energy access.

Our Chief Impact Officer and Managing Director recently joined industry experts including Davis Johnson, Erika Karp and Lindsay Smalling in a panel at the SOCAP 2023 conference to discuss an important topic: How we measure and define our work in impact investing. During our time together, we unpacked and discussed the need for strong metrics and framework surrounding our industry to ensure we drive the change we wish to achieve.

Small businesses employ nearly 50% of Connecticut’s workforce and make up 99.4% of all business establishments throughout the state. Still, many are struggling under current economic conditions. Since 2011, the InvestCT program has been a lifeline for entrepreneurs unable to attract traditional forms of capital—delivering solutions to stimulate business expansion and job creation across a wide spectrum.

This Juneteenth, as we celebrate the end of slavery and reflect on the atrocities committed against the African American community, we want to recognize the countless contributions that Black Americans have made to business and society. Today—and every day—is an excellent time to spotlight Black entrepreneurs and business owners who are breaking barriers and building successful businesses.

Without measurement, there is no mission. The data we gather and provide is central to our investment strategy, and reporting on our progress helps ensure we are moving our mission forward.

This Women’s History Month, we celebrate the countless contributions women have made to society, throughout history and today. Here at Advantage Capital, there are many women who are making great strides and shaping the company, our mission and the way we do business. So, we want to shine a light on the fantastic work of a few women within the firm, their careers, and some of their insights. ‍

The success of small businesses remains vital to the U.S. economy. But many small businesses—especially in rural areas—are struggling. With rising prices, an active job market, and larger companies to compete with, maintaining a small business is a challenging feat. One of the biggest roadblocks to success, though, is the lack of access to growth capital.

February is Black History Month, and we are shining a spotlight on African American entrepreneurs and business leaders across the Advantage Capital portfolio. During Black History Month and every month, we are excited to share the stories of small businesses throughout the country that are growing and enriching their communities.

2022 was a landmark year for Advantage Capital as the firm celebrated 30 years of bringing capital and quality jobs to underserved areas across the country.

Central to Advantage Capital’s thesis is, if you didn’t measure it, you didn’t do it. We are continuously working with our portfolio to define, track and verify economic performance alongside community impact. And year after year, our meticulous data tracking and measurement demonstrates the companies we invest in, and the entrepreneurs behind them, continue to drive meaningful change within their communities.

Advantage Capital had an exciting and eventful week participating in the premier conference for the impact investing industry: SOCAP 2022 in San Francisco. As an Investment Partner and sponsor of the Accountability Track, the team showed up in a big way – engaging with investors, entrepreneurs and other visionaries in the space. The week was anchored by two on-stage speaking spots for Managing Director Ryan Brennan and Chief Impact Officer, Sandr

Small businesses are the backbone of the United States economy, but today, small businesses, especially rural small businesses in my home state of Ohio, are struggling. Here are four unique difficulties small business owners face, and how they can overcome them.

Community commitment is essential in overlooked, underserved areas. Conscious companies, policymakers and investors must work together to ensure employment opportunities exist to help create more economic equity across the country.

Modern MD was founded in 2014 with the goal of ensuring equitable access to high-quality healthcare. In neighborhoods across the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, it is filling a medical care gap for thousands of people.

Otis Tucker Jr. has been in the trucking industry since he was 20 years old. In 2013, with a $10,000 loan and his personal savings, Otis bought a used dump truck and started Trucking Innovation as a one-man, one-truck operation. Less than a decade later, Trucking Innovation has become a local leader in trucking and hauling with a fleet of 14 trucks and more than 17 employees based in Chalmette, Louisiana.

Fortifying rural America is crucial to the health and well-being of our country, but rural America is often overlooked by private capital. The strongest remedy for rural communities in decline is to reverse out-migration, boost population growth and nurture talent. It is people who occupy positions of both customer and product of a community – thus making people the barometer of community vitality.

In a rural county like Atkinson, Georgia, an employer’s responsibility is about far more than creating jobs and making payroll. It’s about being there for the community, and that’s the mentality that Cady Bag President and CEO Doug Smith embodies.

The International Finance Commission estimated that nearly $2.3 trillion was invested for impact in 2020. In light of this, terms such as ‘double bottom line,’ ‘impact investing,’ and ‘ESG’ have become major buzzwords. But how do investors ensure they are meeting the mission behind these concepts?

All-In Recruiting is a minority and woman-owned boutique talent agency focused on leveling the playing field for minorities and women in the tech industry.

Our Chief Impact Officer Sandra M. Moore recently spoke on the Washington Report panel at the Novogradac 2022 Spring New Markets Tax Credit Conference, an annual event covering important topics and updates concerning the new markets tax credit that hold value for investors, developers, and others in the field.

Juneteenth is a time for reflection and remembrance of a day that marked the end of a terrible era in our country’s history--slavery. It is also a time to celebrate and recognize the countless contributions African Americans have made to our society and industry, offering an excellent time to spotlight Black entrepreneurs who are building successful businesses while bringing tremendous benefits to their communities.

We believe the impact of our double-bottom line investment efforts are meaningful and can make a difference within capital-starved communities. And we work hard to define, track and ultimately verify the economic performance of the small businesses in which we invest.

This Women’s History Month, we celebrate the countless contributions women have made to society, throughout history and today. The month also serves as a time to pause and reflect on the gender imbalances which continue to plague female entrepreneurs and the ways in which these challenges can be reduced through direct impact investment.

2021 started on the heels of uncertainty brought on by 2020. But we continued to do what we do best--finance businesses in capital-starved markets.

November is National Veterans and Military Families Month, and we are proud to help foster growth in veteran-owned businesses across the country and support our portfolio companies as they create good quality jobs and drive positive community impact.

Last week, our Chief Impact Officer Sandra M. Moore spoke on a panel at the Milken Institute’s 24th Global Conference, an annual convening of global leaders in finance, health, academia, media, and philanthropy. This year’s conference, centered around the theme of “Charting a New Course,” reflected on the ways in which the public health, economic, and social upheavals of the recent past can inform a more hopeful and prosperous future.

If you’ve shopped for groceries anytime within the last 30 years or so, odds are you know JSI Store Fixtures. Those gleaming rows of apples are likely nestled in JSI’s produce bins and fixtures. Same goes for the wine and craft beer displays, along with bakery, flowers and fresh foods. All told, JSI crafts more than 30 different food-forward displays from its manufacturing plant in Milo, Maine, along with three other locations across the country.

To kick off the summer, Advantage Capital was thrilled to welcome 15 interns to our offices across the country, working on a variety of projects, business lines and teams. As the summer nears a wrap, we caught up with members of the team to learn about their intern experience here.

The childcare gap has been one of the largest barriers to women moving into senior-level management positions and advancing their careers—an issue affecting 129 million women around the world. A recent study examining the economic impacts of the nation’s childcare crisis found that there is an annual economic cost of $57 billion in lost earnings, productivity, and revenue.

Our Chief Impact Officer, Sandra Moore recently spoke at the 2021 Social Innovation Summit--an annual global event that brings together visionaries and change agents from around the world for discussions on how to take action and create lasting, positive change.

It’s been almost seven months to the day that Stirling Ultracold first publicly announced its role in global COVID-19 vaccine storage and distribution efforts. As the only company to produce freezers capable of storing any COVID-19 vaccine requiring ultra-low temperatures, Stirling played a key role in public health efforts. Since then, it’s been at the forefront of a global priority. It also just recently closed a public merger with BioLife.

Rural Georgia communities are facing a lot of challenges when it comes to jobs and population loss. But for towns like Dahlonega in the foothills of north Georgia, StruXure Outdoors is making a big impact by providing good, quality jobs in the local community.

State NMTC programs have been a strong amplifier of the federal program in states across the country. On average, states that have passed measures have nearly tripled their programs from roughly $37 million to $103 million annually.

The economic fallout from COVID-19 has only heightened the need for targeted investment programs like the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) program. The TheNMTC program has been an important source of financing for businesses and community facilities in some of the country’s most distressed rural and urban communities. The program has delivered nearly $110 billion in total financing to over 7,000 projects—creating over a million jobs nationwide.

The results of Advantage Capital’s portfolio company survey are in and job growth remains strong. While the U.S. economy has still only recovered 55% of jobs that were lost last year, our portfolio companies reported supporting nearly 16,000 jobs and expect to hire 4,391 more through 2021--an indication of their resilience throughout the pandemic.

We are thrilled to announce the release of our 2020-2021 impact report. We know the importance of doing business in a way that has a measurable impact on the communities we invest in. See how we do it here in our first annual report.

Champion Controls is a leading system integration, engineering and control systems manufacturer. In layperson terms, they provide the control systems that help to power Florida’s 100 moveable bridges, numerous water management projects.

Women are the founders, leaders, managers and makers. They are in the C-suite, on manufacturing floors, and everywhere in between. On International Woman’s Day—one week into Woman’s History Month—we are proud to recognize women who are leading and moving business forward.

Earlier this month, our chief impact officer, Sandra M. Moore joined Real Leaders to discuss the risk of short-sided leadership, the importance of your leadership lens and the gains of investing with a long-term perspective. She explained that one of the biggest challenges is wage growth and wage progression balanced against sustainability and profitability of businesses.

During Black History Month and beyond, we are excited to share the stories of small businesses across the country that are growing and enriching their communities.

While we were recognized for this work recently in Real Leaders, as one of the world’s top impact companies, this award is deeply tied to the business owners and operators we support.

When we started 2020, little did we know what changes the year would bring. There has truly been no better time to mobilize capital to people and places that have long been overlooked.

The smallest businesses, those from low-income communities, and minority, veteran and woman-owned companies—many of whom may have been shut out of the first round of PPP—should see more help in the latest $284 billion Paycheck Protection Program.

More than one-third of the new $900 billion coronavirus relief package, which was approved by Congress this week, will go towards small businesses. This relief can’t come soon enough for the countless small businesses still operating in survival mode.

Sandra M. Moore, our chief impact officer, was recently a panelist on the "COVID-19 and Impact Investing" panel at this year's Impact Investing Symposium at Washington University in St. Louis where she discussed the importance of equity.

Stirling Ultracold—producer of the best-in-class, ultra-low temperature freezer—is playing a critical role in the effort to vaccinate up to 7.8 billion people worldwide.

What we’ve seen in our nearly three decades in business is this: no matter who wins any election, as long as some of our communities are struggling and others are thriving, there’s going to be a call for investment and effort to make change and bring opportunities to those communities that need it.

Is U.S. manufacturing coming back? Indeed, talking with some of the manufacturers in our portfolio—along with local leaders and economic development officials—it never fully left.

‍The COVID-19 pandemic has brought on one of the greatest economic struggles in Unites States history. While conditions are improving, thousands of businesses across the state are still dealing with the economic fallout. Nonetheless, given these challenging times, there are things businesses can and should be doing to help mitigate the circumstances.

While there may not be a playbook to managing operations during a pandemic, businesses across the country are leaning into their strengths in varying ways to overcome challenging times. In a recent webinar, we spoke with three business leaders from the Advantage Capital portfolio to discuss what they are doing to keep business running and employees safe during COVID-19.

Mitigating stagnate wages is ultimately the stretch goal for all of Advantage Capital’s investments. At Advantage, we track a concept we have coined as, wage progression-- or when a worker has the opportunity to grow their wages in a company, and the company makes the matter equally as important to it.

Join us as we take a deep dive with three of our portfolio companies into how they are managing and planning in a COVID-19 world. Register for our webinar today.

Despite recent challenges, findings from our recent survey show that the impact our portfolio companies are making, across industries and geographies, is overwhelmingly intact.

Advantage Capital recently received our 12th NMTC allocation award and with this next $60 million allocation, we stand in our commitment to support business growth that creates good, quality jobs—a foundation of economic security for households and communities.

In January, we visited one of our portfolio companies, North End Teleservices, to see how it is making an impact in its community. In this second installment of our two-part series, you’ll hear about what it’s like to work at North End.

In January, we visited one of our portfolio companies, North End Teleservices, to see how it is making an impact in its community. In this first installment of our two-part series, you’ll hear how Carmen’s people-centered business model is making a major impact in her business and community.

In a recent webinar, we brought together a team of expert panelists to discuss the future growth of small business in a COVID-19 world. This team of entrepreneurs, investors and community development professionals spent time unpacking current trends in small business development and how to move beyond relief strategies to full recovery.

As the country watched the situation unfold in New York, Rheonix was uniquely positioned and ready to answer the call for quick, reliable testing.

With policymakers continuously working to devise small business relief strategies, stark reminders that we are living in tough economic times are constant.

In a survey of 685 businesses from the National Federation of Independent Business, 80% of owners applied for a SBA Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan and 90% of those who applied received one

As COVID-19 interjects a massive interruption into the US economy, leaving millions unemployed, bringing good, quality jobs back is going to be essential. So how do we do it?

Small businesses that accessed the SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program, enabling them to keep payroll flowing during the COVID-19 crisis, now have some guidance on how to claim forgiveness of those loans.

While the COVID-19 crisis was in its nascent stage in the United States, we were just starting to see how much havoc the virus would cause on the American worker, seeing layoffs occurring in droves.

What should solar power industry developers, operating partners, and investors look for in a solar financing partner? Read on for a look at four primary characteristics.

The sobering realities of the current global health crisis and the resulting economic turmoil have many looking to help.

Read on for what small business owners need to know about the new stimulus bill.

Beginning today, April 3, small businesses can apply for the nearly $350 billion in forgivable loans available through the Paycheck Protection Program.

Hear from our team on three programs: the Paycheck Protection Program, SBA Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) and EIDL Grants.

The sobering realities of the current global health crisis and the resulting economic turmoil have many looking to help. We are proud to see the innovation and leadership by many of our portfolio companies during this trying time.

The historic $2 trillion stimulus package, now signed into law, brings much-needed financial relief to American workers and small businesses.

Our Chief Investment Officer Scott Murphy addresses our ongoing commitment to providing guidance and resources for small businesses and their employees during this critical time.

Nearly three decades ago, Advantage Capital was founded to bring businesses, jobs and technologies to communities that have historically lacked access to investment capital. 2019 was no different. Last year, we invested in nearly 100 unique businesses ready for growth, across more than 25 states. Employees at those businesses shared what it meant to have a good-quality job—one with strong wages, training and growth prospects.

The next state New Markets Tax Credit programs are likely to be cast around deeper metrics for success, with high transparency, performance reporting and accountability checks to reach social and economic goals, writes Sandra Moore in the latest Novogradac Journal of Tax Credits. The article takes a closer look at Maine’s program and a vigorous approach to full analysis and impact reporting.

As we move closer to the second half of the year, it seems a good time to step back and evaluate the social and economic impact of our portfolio companies. While we are still a month away from the mid-year 2019 survey, a reflection on the real, tangible impacts of our investments over the full course of 2018 makes sense, as does a brief assessment on the year so far. Read on for our findings and perspective.

Today’s job market is on fire. Unemployment levels haven’t been this low in half a century. Even U.S. manufacturing jobs – which fell hard in the last recession – are booming. But a look behind the headline numbers tells a different story. Many parts of rural America aren’t feeling the warmth. Both rural workers and employers have limited options. Take a look at what’s happened in one rural Kentucky community.

What truly makes an impact? And in the cacophony of economic reports, indicators and news, what rises above the fray as the thing that matters? Our Chief Impact Officer weighs in.

As part of our focus on local communities and how investing in growing businesses can help strengthen economies, boost the labor force, and provide sustainable impact, we’ll be visiting with portfolio companies across the country, and talking with the people behind the work. Read on for a look at one Las Vegas company that is truly making a difference.

We asked more than 200 of our active portfolio companies about the economic and social impact they are making within their local communities. How many provide specialized training for employees? What percentage offer their employees wealth creation opportunities? Read on for our findings.