New Collaboration to Increase Small Business Funding

The Capital Region Development Council (CRDC), based in Concord, is collaborating with BDC Capital Corporation and New England Certified Development Corp. to provide additional sources of funding to small and mid-size businesses in NH.

BDC and its affiliate, New England Certified Development Corp., are sharing office space with CRDC at 91 North State St. in Concord.

"BDC is a New England-wide loan and investment company with more than $600 million invested in companies around the six-state region," says Stephen Heavener, executive director of CRDC. "They bring a wide range of financing resources to our local clients, including revolving lines of credit, SBA term loans, and mezzanine investment. Like CRDC, they are a successful New England-based SBA 504 lender. CRDC plans to work with BDC to bring all of these financing options to companies in New Hampshire to complement the lending tools CRDC already offers."

In 2010, CRDC provided more than $4 million to 14 businesses to assist with growth and job creation. "We are hopeful that substantially more businesses will be assisted as a result of this collaboration," Heavener says. "Access to risk tolerant capital is often the number one challenge to business growth and investment."

Raymond Dugdale, vice president of BDC, has 25-plus years of small business lending experience, and works in Concord. "I am interested in getting out and working with small business owners to see how we can be of help to them in solving their financing problems. Last year alone we delivered more than $100 million in financing to New England companies, and I am optimistic that this collaboration with CRDC will bring a good portion of that here to New Hampshire," Dugdale says. For more information, visit www.crdc-nh.com.