A new fund offering small, short-term loans will help Canberra’s small businesses to grow and recover as the region emerges from COVID-19 and associated lockdowns.

The recovery fund of $500,000 will lend ACT-registered companies $20,000 to $50,000, to be repaid within 15 months, by December 2022.

The fund will be managed by the venture debt specialist firm Epicorp, a not-for-profit organisation that gives small and start-up companies non-traditional access to capital, to support growth and commercialisation. (COVID recovery loans are not available to sole traders.) For more information, visit: COVID Recovery Loans | epicorp.

Epicorp chairman Ken Kroeger said: “Our purpose is to support growth, and I’m really proud that we can offer some short-term assistance following a really challenging period in the Canberra region and Australia more broadly. We are a non-profit group, passionate about nurturing innovation, and this is an opportunity to demonstrate that passion.”

Canberra accounting firm Tailored Accounts will help Epicorp to reach appropriate customers for these short-term loans, and to make sure the applications are processed quickly.

“Partnering with Tailored Accounts is also a great privilege,” Mr Kroeger said, adding that CEO Harry Hoang and his team “had worked hard to build up an outsourced model that makes a big difference to the maturity of start-up businesses”.

Epicorp was founded in 2001 to establish a strong technology commercialisation process for the Australian Capital Region.

Under common ownership of the Region’s research institutions, with government and the private sector support, Epicorp fostered the commercialisation of intellectual property from within the Australian National University, CSIRO, University of Canberra, NICTA, and the Australian Capital Region’s industries.

Today, Epicorp works closely with the Canberra Innovation Network (CBRIN) and the region’s innovation and business support network to provide companies with short term growth capital through lending facilities and venture debt.

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