The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has officially launched the 2025 Growth Accelerator Fund Competition (GAFC), allocating up to $9 million in funding to support entrepreneurial support organizations (ESOs) nationwide in building and strengthening innovation-driven ecosystems.
If you run an entrepreneurship center, accelerator, incubator, co-working space, a university-affiliated program, or a similar ESO – this is a golden opportunity to secure both funding and a spotlight on the ecosystem you serve.
What is GAFC?
The Growth Accelerator Fund Competition is a key initiative by the SBA aimed at enhancing innovation ecosystems across the U.S. by catalyzing connectivity, capacity, and community among stakeholders such as entrepreneurs, investors, nonprofits, universities, corporations, and philanthropies. By funding projects that address ecosystem gaps, GAFC seeks to support entrepreneurs in undercapitalized regions, industries, and communities through incentivizing the development of novel programs.
For 2025, GAFC features a two-stage funding model:
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- Stage One: $75,000 awards for Entrepreneur Support Organizations (ESOs) to define ecosystem challenges, develop innovative approaches, and establish partnerships to address these challenges.
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- Stage Two: $150,000 follow-on funding for Stage One winners to scale their solutions and demonstrate measurable impact.
All told, winners will be able to receive up to two tranches of funding totaling $225,000 in order to enhance their organizational capacity and solve ecosystem challenges, ultimately benefiting the stakeholders that they serve.
2025 Theme Areas
Every GAFC cycle, the SBA proposes new theme areas to serve as a guiding direction for that year’s applications.
The two 2025 competition themes are:
Lab to Market
Bridging the gap between research and commercialization, focusing on areas such as:
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- National and economic security
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- Domestic manufacturing and production
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- Biotechnology
- Other critical and emerging technologies in the selected innovation ecosystem
Expanding capital access for entrepreneurs and small businesses during business formation and growth, through strategies such as:
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- Creating new funding mechanisms
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- Improving investment literacy among entrepreneurs
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- Developing more financial stakeholders in the ecosystem
- Addressing challenges to capital access
- Developing more financial stakeholders in the ecosystem
Key Dates for 2025
The GAFC application cycle is short and sweet, only accepting submissions for what’s essentially a three week window. And if you are the lucky recipient of a Stage One award, be prepared to develop a Stage Two submission in June. Below are the key dates for both stages, but the main one to know for now is Stage One Applications are due January 31st.
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- Stage One Submission Period: January 8 – January 31, 2025
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- Stage One Winners Announced: April 2025
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- Stage Two Submission Period: June 2025
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- Stage Two Winners Announced: September 2025
What’s Needed in a Stage One Submission
With this relatively short timeline, you’ll be happy to know the Stage One submission isn’t overly cumbersome, although it will require thoughtful planning and coordination among ecosystem partners. A strong Stage One submission should clearly define the ecosystem challenge your ESO is addressing, backed by data and evidence. Your application must include:
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- A slide deck (max 13 slides) that covers your mission, problem statement, proposed solution, and partnerships.
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- A one-slide summary highlighting your organization and proposed impact.
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- A 90-second video narrative introducing your organization, the problem you aim to solve, and how you plan to leverage GAFC funding.
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- A detailed theory of change, demonstrating how your initiative will strengthen ecosystem capacity, connectivity, and community.
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- A plan for how your ESO will utilize the $75,000 award to pilot your initiative, ensuring that your proposal is both novel and feasible.
Tips for a Winning Application
GAFC is an incredibly competitive funding cycle, so keep these best practices in mind for a winning proposal
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- Be specific: Clearly define the ecosystem challenge, using concrete data and real-world examples.
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- Articulate a clear theory of change: Outline short-term and long-term impacts of the gap your proposed initiative is filling.
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- Avoid vague goals: Your submission should include specific, measurable outcomes that prove the effectiveness of your proposed solution.
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- Matching Funds: Although not required, demonstrating matching funds from community partners can be a difference maker as the SBA judges the feasibility and sustainability of your proposal.
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- Follow submission guidelines exactly: Ensure your deck is formatted properly, your video is under 90 seconds, and your documents meet SBA’s requirements to avoid disqualification.
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- Demonstrate tangible partnerships: The SBA prioritizes collaborative efforts, so highlight current and potential partnerships. Speaking of which …
How EcoMap Can Partner for Increased Competitiveness
At EcoMap Technologies, we specialize in mapping and connecting entrepreneurial ecosystems, helping ESOs demonstrate the depth, connectivity, and impact of their networks. We actively work with 90+ customers in 32 states and 9 countries, meaning we have worked across countless geographic, demographic, and industry lines.
In 2024, we partnered with the Association of University Research Parks (AURP) to support their successful GAFC proposal developing a Rural Autonomous Innovation Network (RAIN). While they had already assembled an all-star team focused on supporting rural innovation in this industry cluster, EcoMap was recruited to develop a front door to the ecosystem in order to make the information about it more accessible.
By partnering with EcoMap for your 2025 GAFC application, you can:
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- Map out and manage the assets in your ecosystem
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- Demonstrate strong connectivity among your ecosystem stakeholders
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- Leverage existing partnerships to enhance your application’s competitiveness
Include EcoMap as a partner in your GAFC submission to enhance your proposal’s impact and chances of winning. Reach out to us to discuss how we can support your application!
Ready to Apply? Here’s Your Next 5 Steps
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- Review the full competition guidelines on the SBA’s official GAFC website.
- Identify your focus area (Lab to Market or Capital Formation).
- Recruit a consortia of partners who share an interest in that focus area in your ecosystem.
Step 3.5: Reach out to us as a potential partner 🙂 - Develop a compelling proposal showcasing your novel approach to addressing an ecosystem gap.
- Submit your Stage One application by January 31, 2025!
For more details, visit the SBA GAFC page or register for the GAFC informational webinar on January 9th here.