In April 2024, SBA announced the 2024 Growth Accelerator Fund Competition (GAFC) Stage One winners, which include public, private, nonprofit, and academic organizations with a collaborative and inclusive approach to entrepreneur ecosystem building. Since 2014, GAFC has awarded over $26 million to winners across 52 states and U.S. territories. This year’s Stage One cohort will extend that impact as they each receive a $50,000 cash prize to foster a national innovation support ecosystem that advances small business research and development (R&D) from ideas to market.” Read the Stage One press release. Learn more about each GAFC partnership in the public directory: https://bit.ly/GAFC24Directory. Resources Download the full competition guidelines. Download the Pre-Application Webinar slides. Read the 2024 GAFC announcement press release. In 2023, the SBA introduced a new two-stage format for the Growth Accelerator Fund Competition. In May 2023, the SBA awarded forty $50,000 Stage One prizes to catalyze organizations from 30 states and territories, including D.C. and Puerto Rico, and invited them to apply for Stage Two of the Growth Accelerator Fund Competition. Thirty-five award-winning accelerator partnerships received $150,000 Stage Two prizes to help advance equitable investment in innovative startups and high-growth small businesses across several priorities, including National Security & Global Competitiveness, Domestic Manufacturing and Production, Climate and Renewable Energy, and Underserved Communities. Read the Stage One press release. Read the Stage Two press release. Learn more about each Growth Accelerator Fund Competition partnership in the public directory: https://bit.ly/GAFC23Directory Stage Two Winners National Security & Global Competitiveness Domestic Manufacturing and Production Climate and Renewable Energy Underserved Communities Competition Details The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) offered $50,000 to $200,000 in prize awards for impactful and inclusive approaches to foster a thriving, collaborative national innovation support ecosystem to advance research and development (R&D) from ideas to impact. By fostering connections between entrepreneurs, advisors, mentors, partners, philanthropies, corporations, investors, and other shared resources, the 2023 Growth Accelerator Fund Competition (GAFC) catalyzed strategic ecosystem partnerships to build community and organizational capacity for the successful launch, growth, and scale of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)-based entrepreneurs and startups. Prizes awarded in Two Stages Stage One: $50,000 cash prizes awarded to organizations (Catalysts) to catalyze relationships between aligned stakeholders (Ecosystem Partners) that led to the development of Growth Accelerator Partnerships. Catalysts worked collaboratively with Ecosystem Partners to bring additional resources, deepen network connections, and develop strategies that amplify the impact and success of the Growth Accelerator Partnership and the STEM/R&D-focused entrepreneurs and small businesses it serves. SBA encouraged creative models for ecosystem building. SBA welcomed Stage One submissions from a broad range of organizations with a collaborative vision to nurture a national ecosystem for equitable access to entrepreneurship. Stage Two: $50,000 to $150,000 cash prizes awarded to “Growth Accelerator Partnerships” to assist entrepreneurs that transition R&D into the marketplace. The Growth Accelerator Partnership provided startups and small businesses with additional support and resources. SBA accepted Stage Two submissions from Growth Accelerator Partnerships; submissions are prepared jointly by Stage One Catalysts and Ecosystem Partners and organizations that presented their proposal to successfully accelerate the launch, growth, and scale of diverse STEM/R&D-focused small businesses. Resources Download full competition guidelines 2021 Growth Accelerator Fund Competition and SBIR Catalyst Competition Results The 2021 competition features 84 winners for the Growth Accelerator Fund Competition (GAFC) and eight winners for the SBIR Catalyst competition, a new component aimed at spurring investment in underrepresented communities within the innovation economy at scale, receiving a combined total of $5.4 million in awards.innovation-focused entrepreneur support organizations (ESOs) with programs to speed the launch, growth, and scale of deep-tech small businesses across the country. The winners come from 48 states, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia and have been awarded based on their proposals for innovative ideas that inclusively support entrepreneurs researching and developing STEM-related innovations. Two prize tracks were run simultaneously: Track 1 - Growth Accelerator Fund Competition (GAFC)—The winners of the GAFC are accelerators and incubators who proposed targeted assistance to STEM/R&D entrepreneurs from underrepresented groups, including women, people of color, rural, and veteran entrepreneurs. The GAFC prize winners support a broad range of industries including clean energy, supply chain resilience, and infrastructure. Many accelerators and incubators also work to expand the participation of innovation-focused small businesses located in HUBZones. GAFC winners will each receive a $50,000 prize. Track 2 - SBIR Catalyst—The winners of the SBIR Catalyst competition facilitated eight collaborative partnership proposals aimed at building connections across entrepreneur support organizations that foster innovation driven entrepreneurs from underserved communities. The winners are recognized connectors across programs that fund innovation clusters, hubs, and other technology-based economic development initiatives. SBIR Catalyst winners will each receive a $150,000 prize. Resources: The 2019 Competition featured sixty (60) $50,000 prize awards for accelerators working with high-tech entrepreneurs, mainly potential applicants to the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) or Small Business Tech Transfer (STTR) programs. Winners proposed at least 60 percent of their competition-related work to entrepreneurs in one of the following groups: women; socially and/or economically disadvantaged individuals; entrepreneurs in states with lower numbers of SBIR/STTR awards; or entrepreneurs living in or whose business was located/operating in an Opportunity Zone. See competition details for more information on the guidelines, and the press release below for the list of winners. Resources: The Growth Accelerator Fund Competition (GAFC) was first launched by SBA in 2014 to stimulate innovation and entrepreneurship across the country. GAFC prize awards have funded a wide range of accelerators and incubators in an effort to provide increased support to entrepreneurs, particularly in the STEM/R&D innovation ecosystem. Each competition has varied in total prize dollars as well as targeted groups and/or geographies.
2024 Growth Accelerator Fund Competition
2024 Stage One Winners Announced
2023 Growth Accelerator Fund Competition
Competition Goals
2019 Growth Accelerator Fund Competition
History
Total prize awards since 2014-2021
387
Total prize funds since 2014-2021
$19,350,000
Number of competitions 2014-2021
6
Number of states/territories represented
52
Number of unique winners
284
Past GAFC Announcements
