This year, Massachusetts Growth Capital Corporation (MGCC) announced the award recipients for its Small Business Technical Assistance program for FY2019. The event took place at Strong Style Coffee, a beautiful start up Café in downtown Fitchburg.
Lt. Governor Karyn Polito and staff from MGCC awarded the 40 statewide recipients including LISC Boston who received a $35,000 award to enhance our support for early stage business growth. The funds will be used to increase our capacity to provide Kiva lending creating a pipeline of ready to invest in small businesses throughout greater Boston. Kiva loans are character based loans of up to $10,000 at 0% interest crowd-funded through an online platform called Kiva. These loans are geared towards businesses who are not able to access capital elsewhere. In the last 2 years, LISC Boston has provided over 30 loans to businesses throughout the state matching each loan received 1:1 through endorsements made by local non-profit organizations serving as businesses advisors or “trustees”. Through the generous MGCC funding, LISC aims to engage an additional 10 businesses this year as well as provide follow up services to previous borrowers.