A number of TechTown-based firms have received a sizable chunk of the $500,000 in micro loans First Step Fund has made so far this year.
The new micro loan fund, based in TechTown, has made 10 loans since its debut in this spring. Half of those loans have gone to firms that call TechTown home, including
Jimmy Kicks,
Clean Emission Fluids,
Launch Learning Group,
Air Movement Systems and NextCAT.
"It was very timely for us," says Chuck Salley, CEO of
NextCAT, about how the loan helped further the development of NextCAT's principal product. "It was the second investment we received."
The First Step Fund provides micro loans of about $50,000 to local start-ups in need of seed capital to commercialize their products. That could mean anything from helping market a product, finish legal work or expand inventory. Micro loans from the First Step Fund and other local micro loan funds have proven to be popular with many small businesses in the wake of the financial crisis and subsequent credit freeze.
Invest Detroit,
TechTown and
Ann Arbor SPARK, which runs the
Michigan Micro Loan Fund, created the First Step Fund. Loan recipients are picked by a board independent of TechTown.
Source: Chuck Salley, CEO of NextCAT
Writer: Jon Zemke
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