US Defense Dept Strategic Capital "arsenal"

(Lexology, London, 30 October 2024) The US Defence Department's Office of Strategic Capital (OFC) is one of the newest entrants in the US Federal arsenal of finance tools for growth companies, providing loans between $10M and $150M to develop critical technologies vital to national security, with an initial program of up to $984M. Another US federal loan program is the Dept. of Energy's Loan Program Office (LPO) which has a "budget" of up to $300 billion to finance domestic renewable energy companies and projects. Together with USEXIM's "Make More in America Program” (MMIA), created to spur U.S. manufacturing and create more resilient supply chains, these three often overlooked federal finance mechanisms take on the credit risk which traditional banks and non-bank lenders (e.g. private equity) cannot [or will not] take on and which impose terms that crush return on investment. [Rare earths developer Australian Strategic Materials (ASM) has indicated that Australian firms can potentially access US Department of Defence funding under the newly set up Office of Strategic Capital.]