Avante Mezzanine Partners, a woman-owned fund of Los Angeles, Calif. has been named the 2018 Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration. Avante, along with other national winners and finalists for the National Small Business Person of the Year, were invited to a recognition ceremony as part of National Small Business Week in Washington, D.C., on April 29-30. SBA Administrator Linda McMahon presented the awards.
Avante Mezzanine Partners SBIC, LP is led by Managing Partners Jeri J. Harman, Stephen Adamson and Natasha V. Fox, and is headquartered in Los Angeles with an office in Boston. It provides total debt solutions and junior capital for high quality, lower middle market businesses that generate at least $3 million in cash flow.
Avante invests between $5 million and $25 million of capital in the form of unitranche or one-stop debt as well as traditional mezzanine debt and minority equity. It also partners with other lenders to provide an optimal capital solution.
Avante works with private equity and independent sponsors in buyout transactions, as well as with entrepreneurs and owners to finance recapitalizations, refinancings, acquisitions and growth. Additionally, as a women-owned fund, one of Avante Mezzanine Partners’ areas of interest, although not exclusive focus, is providing capital to women and minority-owned companies.
The SBIC of the Year award is administered by the SBA’s Office of Investment. This office was established under the Small Business Investment Act of 1958 at a time when no private equity industry existed in the United States. Almost 60 years later, the office manages the current SBIC program, which operates as a fund of funds by providing U.S. taxpayer guaranteed long-term loans to SBA-licensed SBICs. The SBICs use these taxpayer guarantees and privately raised funds to independently provide capital, primarily in the form of subordinated debt with equity enhancements, to qualifying small businesses.
To learn more about the Small Business Investment Company program, visit www.sba.gov/sbic.
