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Unclaimed
Discovery tool, not advice. Every figure is the published rule, not a decision on your case.
Prizes

SBA Growth Accelerator Fund Competition (GAFC)

Status

Closed for now

SBA has run GAFC annually since 2014 (relaunched in expanded form in 2023). Enquiries go to accelerators@sba.gov; watch americasseedfund.us for the next Stage One announcement.

Closed
Amount
$150,000

$50,000 to $150,000 in prize awards. Stage One awards cash prizes to accelerators and ecosystem builders; Stage Two awards larger prizes to Stage One winners that form consortia with matching partners.

Funder

U.S. Small Business Administration

public · national

Deadline: One call a year — Runs as an annual competition. The 2024 competition ran Stage One and Stage Two rounds; a 2025 GAFC round followed.

Your odds
Not published

This funder does not publish a success rate. We rank it using the rate observed across similar programmes and label it as an estimate rather than implying we know.

Effort
quick

Quick — mostly identity and bank details.

Who can apply

Applicants are accelerators, incubators, venture studios and other ecosystem organisations that support R&D-focused STEM start-ups - not the start-ups themselves. Recent focus areas have been national and economic security, domestic manufacturing and production, and sustainability and biotechnology.

How to apply

  1. Register on the SBA GAFC competition portal
  2. Submit the Stage One application describing the accelerator/ecosystem model
  3. Stage One winners may then form a consortium and apply for Stage Two

Related reading: How grant deadlines actually work · UEI and SAM.gov registration, explained

Apply on the funder's site

Source. https://www.americasseedfund.us/acceleratorsarchived

"$50,000 to $150,000 in prize awards"

Verified on 14 August 2026

Source: www.americasseedfund.us

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Paid, separate from Unclaimed

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