Social enterprise incubator RevHub is awarded $50,000 for its efforts in Climate & Renewable Energy—one of only 40 organizations nationwide to win the SBA’s 2023 Growth Accelerator Fund Competition.
Irvine, CA, April 2023 | The US Small Business Administration (SBA) has selected social enterprise incubator RevHub as the recipient of one of its $50,000 “Catalyze” prizes, continuing the incubator’s mission to illuminate pathways and eliminate barriers to entrepreneurship throughout Orange County. The prize is one of 40 awarded to companies across America for winning Stage One of the SBA’s 2023 Growth Accelerator Fund Competition (GAFC); it is one of only four prizes distributed this year within the Climate & Renewable Energy category.
“Our Catalyst partners will help ensure entrepreneurs from all backgrounds can leverage opportunities,” says SBA Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman. “We know these investments will advance American competitiveness and help us build an economy that works for everyone.”
Social enterprises are mission-driven, for-profit businesses addressing environmental and social challenges, such as climate change. Although a significant part of the economies of nations like Great Britain and Canada, social enterprises have been slow to find acceptance in the United States. RevHub seeks to establish Orange County as the model for social entrepreneurship and equitable economic opportunity in California and, eventually, the nation at large.
The award follows a string of recent successes for RevHub since its creation of Orange County’s social enterprise ecosystem in 2019. In November 2022, the incubator mobilized one of the greatest state funding efforts for entrepreneurship in local history and launched the NorthSTAR OC Collaborative, a first-of-its-kind partnership which flung open the doors to entrepreneurship for underserved communities. In May 2023, RevHub initiated a groundbreaking collaboration with UCI Beall Applied Innovation and Sustain SoCal to build Orange County’s first business incubator focused on climate action across the state of California. Most recently, the incubator announced the recruitment of Carma Lacy, the pre-eminent economic development authority in Orange County, to lead the transformation of the entrepreneurial and social impact landscape.
About RevHubOC:
RevHub is coalescing Orange County’s social enterprise ecosystem for greater innovation and impact. Founded in 2019, RevHub is a community of investors, entrepreneurs, mentors, and partners which has incubated 23 social enterprises and established RevFund I, Orange County’s first social impact investment fund.
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