CAPCO Seminar Reviewed

On December 8th, the DC Government’s Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking and the Surety Association of America held a special seminar called, “CAPCO and Surety Bonding-Tools for Small Business Growth.”

The seminar linked DC’s small businesses that are looking to grow with fund managers who would be able to provide direction, information on the program, and the process to access funds.

The event was attended by business owners and members of the banking and venture capital community. Council Member Kwame Brown, who chairs a Special Committee on a Comprehensive Policy for Local, Small and Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (LSDBEs), spoke about the importance of District-based businesses growing through having access to capital.

The CAPCO program is a new method for raising capital for small and emerging District business ventures. Through CAPCO, insurance companies are provided a DC tax credit against their premium taxes in exchange for making available $50 million in long-term equity and debt for new or expanding small businesses based in DC.

There are currently three companies certified by the District Council to provide the $50 million in equity and loans over 10 years and they are:
Enhanced Capital District Fund, with $25.9M and administered by Dwight Bush; Advantage Capital, with $10.9 M, administered by Doug Beekman; and Wilshire DC Partners, LLC, with $13.1 M, administered by Matthew Ash.

The Washington, DC Economic Partnership hosted the event and served as co-sponsors along with the DC Coalition for Capital.

To learn more about CAPCO, contact the DC Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking at http://www.disb.dc.gov/disr/site/default.asp or the Surety Association of America www.surety.org