A federal agency has launched a pilot program to increase access to working capital for small businesses.

The U.S. Small Business Administration announced that lenders that participate in the SBA 7(a) loan guaranty program may accept applications for the 7(a) working capital pilot (WCP) program.

“The SBA has expanded access to capital and increased small dollar lending over the past three and a half years. Now, we are strengthening loan offerings through this new 7(a) working capital pilot program to provide growth-oriented small businesses with competitively priced lines of credit to fund orders and projects as they scale,” said SBA Administrator Isabelle Casillas Guzman.

The SBA established the working capital pilot program to offer a more flexible loan product to meet the needs of small businesses and provide more options to lenders when structuring lines of credit.

The WCP provides support for small businesses’ domestic and international capital needs and includes the transaction-based WCP to enable small businesses to fund individual projects or orders and access working capital earlier in the sales cycle and asset-based WCP loans to provide access to working capital against assets, allowing small businesses to better manage cash flow while also supporting supply chain resiliency.

The SBA will maintain a range of programs enabling small businesses to access working capital under the 7(a) program, including SBA express loans, CAPLines and export loans. Small businesses can visit the online SBA lender match page to be matched with participating SBA lenders that provide funding with competitive rates and fees.

For small businesses participating in the global marketplace, the WCP is designed to support both domestic and international sales under one facility. For small businesses participating in the home energy rebate programs funded by the Inflation Reduction Act, the WCP provides a new solution to help companies increase capacity to serve more homeowners with their energy conversions.

Lenders approved to process 7(a) loans can begin processing 7(a) WCP loans. Lenders with delegated export working capital program authority will be provided with delegated authority to make 7(a) WCP loans. Lenders that don’t maintain delegated EWCP authority may apply for delegated 7(a) WCP status

More information about the working capital pilot program is available from the SBA website located at www.sba.gov.