U.S. Treasury program totals $5 billion to promote economic growth and jobs in distressed communities across the country

Venture capital firm and small business lender Advantage Capital today announced a $60 million allocation award in the highly competitive federal New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) program. Administered by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund), the awards will spur economic growth and development in low-income urban and rural communities across the country.

Advantage Capital is one of 100 organizations, selected from a pool of 208 nationwide applicants, to receive an allocation. A winner in 13 of 17 allocation rounds, Advantage Capital’s total awards now stand at nearly $860 million since the program’s inception in 2001. The firm has helped create more than 32,000 permanent jobs in low-income communities across the nation in connection with the program with average wages just below $50,000 a year.

“We are pleased to have been selected once again for this critical program,” said Steven Stull, president of Advantage Capital. “With this award, we are able to continue the work of investing in companies that foster economic growth in distressed communities across the country. We know that targeted investment in underserved areas creates and preserves jobs leading to community revitalization.”

“These investments will create jobs and spur economic growth in urban and rural communities across the country,” Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, Janet L. Yellen, said in a press release issued by the U.S. Department of Treasury. “Many of the communities that will receive these funds have confronted economic challenges over many decades. Challenges which have been made more difficult by a lack of investment. It’s critical that Congress sustain these investments over time by making the New Markets Tax Credit Program permanent.”

This announcement by the CDFI Fund brings the total amount awarded through the NMTC Program to $66 billion.

"For over 20 years, the New Markets Tax Credit has facilitated essential investments into low-income communities and businesses helping them to rebuild after years of disinvestment and enabling them to recover from external forces, such as the current pandemic, which have caused disproportionate harm to the businesses and families in these communities,” said CDFI Fund Director Jodie Harris.

About Advantage Capital

Advantage Capital provides financing to established and emerging companies located in communities underserved by conventional sources of capital. Since 1992, the firm has invested more than $3.6 billion in companies from a diverse array of industry sectors and has helped support more than 65,000 jobs. Learn more at www.advantagecap.com, or via Twitter or LinkedIn.

About the New Markets Tax Credit Program

The New Markets Tax Credit Program, established by Congress in December 2000, permits individual and corporate taxpayers to receive a non-refundable tax credit against federal income taxes for making equity investments in financial intermediaries known as Community Development Entities (CDEs). CDEs that receive the tax credit allocation authority under the program are domestic corporations or partnerships that provide loans, investments, or financial counseling in low-income urban and rural communities. The tax credit provided to the investor totals 39% of the cost of the investment and is claimed over a seven-year period. The CDEs in turn use the capital raised to make investments in low-income communities. CDEs must apply annually to the CDFI Fund to compete for New Markets Tax Credit Program allocation authority. Since the inception of the NMTC Program, the CDFI Fund has completed 17 allocation rounds and has made 1,354 awards totaling $66 billion in tax allocation authority. This includes $3 billion in Recovery Act Awards and $1 billion of special allocation authority used for the recovery and redevelopment of the Gulf Opportunity Zone.

To learn more about the New Markets Tax Credit Program, please view the program Fact Sheet or visit www.cdfifund.gov/nmtc.

About the CDFI Fund

Since its creation in 1994, the CDFI Fund has awarded more than $5.1 billion to CDFIs, community development organizations, and financial institutions through: the Bank Enterprise Award Program; the Capital Magnet Fund; the CDFI Rapid Response Program; the Community Development Financial Institutions Program, including the Healthy Food Financing Initiative; the Economic Mobility Corps; the Financial Education and Counseling Pilot Program; and the Native American CDFI Assistance Program. In addition, the CDFI Fund has allocated $66 billion in tax credit allocation authority to Community Development Entities through the New Markets Tax Credit Program, and guaranteed bonds for over $1.7 billion through the CDFI Bond Guarantee Program.

To learn more about the CDFI Fund and its programs, please view the Fact Sheet or visit the CDFI Fund’s website at www.cdfifund.gov.

Advantage Capital is an investment adviser registered under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training. The information in this release is not intended to be an advertisement concerning investment advisory services or an offer to buy or sell securities of any type. Advantage Capital is an equal opportunity lender.

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