Filling the US Small Business Funding Gap

A report by UNC's Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise ... 

The venture capital financing picture looks rather bleak for small businesses located away urban centers or the coasts. SBIC fills some of the gap but not entirely.  

https://www.sbia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Kenan-FundingGap_02042020.pdf 

Abstract

Despite having the deepest and most diverse capital markets in the world, the United States still struggles to provide sufficient capital to many small businesses outside of major commercial centers as well as to women-owned and minority-owned businesses regardless of size or location. This paper reviews the academic literature and provides an analysis of some recent data to gain understanding of the causes of these gaps as well as the solutions for filling the gaps. 

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Not included in this paper is the following thesis: In the same way that community banks are more effective than large national banks at lending to local businesses, crowdfunding could be an important tool to bring and keep investment capital local.