anks or credit unions are not the only options for businesses seeking financial services.

Recently, McKinley Alaska Growth Capital was approved to receive the US Small Business Administration’s Small Business Lending Company (SBLC) license—in the first expansion of the SBLC program in forty years.

With the addition of McKinley Alaska Growth Capital, along with Arkansas Capital Corporation and Funding Circle, there are currently seventeen SBLC licenses nationwide. The SBLC license allows approved non-depository lenders to use government guarantees when underwriting small business loans to lower the risk to the lending organization and cost to the borrower. The licenses support SBA’s efforts to give business owners in underserved communities greater access to affordable capital.

The SBLC license will not alter how McKinley Alaska Growth Capital conducts business in Alaska, but it will allow the firm to begin providing SBA loans outside the state. “While many financial institutions that do business in Alaska regularly consolidate operations outside of the state, McKinley Alaska Growth Capital will be doing the opposite—serving our markets outside of Alaska from our entirely Alaska-based lending team, something that is important to me and that I am very proud of,” says President and CEO Logan Birch.

McKinley Alaska Growth Capital will begin offering loans in markets outside Alaska—starting with Hawaii, Washington, and Montana—as soon as the SBA finalizes administrative activities related to issuing the three new licenses. “We will be up and running sometime in the first quarter,” Birch anticipates.

McKinley Alaska Growth Capital, formerly a unit of Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, is now part of the McKinley Management family of companies. It has provided small business loans and technical assistance since it was established in 1997. The company provides SBA 7(a) loans up to $5 million, financing that many banks are not willing or able to provide. “Our biggest differentiating factor is our hands-on approach in support and helping our borrowers through the SBA loan process,” Birch says. “We are a leader in providing business acquisition financing, as this is a particular area of expertise of ours and the SBA 7(a) loan program works very well for these transactions.”