micro venture capital

[ChristinaE._Lok at bc.sym]

Does anyone have experience in or know of any programs that provide
micro-venture capital services?

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[bradley.streeter at occ.t]

Ms. Lok,

Could you please define "micro-venture capital". Most venture capital
practitioners provide financing of $2.5 million and up. Several small
business investment companies (SBICs) will do deals in the $250,000 to $3
million range. Below $250,000, angel investors (high-net-worth
individuals) are a typical source of equity. Hope this helps.

Bradley Streeter, Community Reinvestment & Development Specialist
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Kansas City, MO
-------------
Original Text
From: Christina Lok <ChristinaE._Lok@bc.sympatico.ca>, on 6/4/98 11:50 AM:
To: <communitydevelopmentbanking-L@cornell.edu>

Does anyone have experience in or know of any programs that provide
micro-venture capital services?

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[cguene at inaise.org]

----------
> From: Christina Lok <ChristinaE._Lok@bc.sympatico.ca>
> To: communitydevelopmentbanking-L@cornell.edu
> Subject: micro venture capital
> Date: donderdag 4 juni 1998 20:50
>
> Does anyone have experience in or know of any programs that provide
> micro-venture capital services?

France has a very spcecial model of investment clubs called CIGALEs
(crickets) for which a special tax exempting law has been designed for.
They are constituted of 10 to 15 members who contribute (usually) on a
monthly basis to a common fund out of which local projects with a social or
environmental added value are financed. The money comes in the form of
venture capital with a low expected financial return. Most of these clubs
never finance more than three projects a year. However they can be
extremely flexible in that they can cooperate to finance common projects
(e.g. a wind farm). Their number fluctuate around 100 a year (there are
around 80 right now), as their life span is limited by this special law to
10 years (+5 years if the members decide so) - but of course, a new CIGALE
can be created immediately once the old one has died. Although being very
small, they have an interesting leverage effect both in financial terms as
in qualitative terms (their projects can be quite pioneering).

I hope that this is the sort of thing you had been looking for ...

Chris Guene




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