Canada-Nunavut Business Service Centre
Nunavut www.cbsc.org/nunavut

Women Entrepreneurs' Fund

Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC)

Last Verified: 2006-02-08

Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) has created a $25 million fund targeted to women entrepreneurs. BDC has dedicated this amount to increase the availability of financing for fast-growing, women-owned firms in Canada. This fund will also serve to leverage additional private equity for the women in business market segment.

Eligibility Criteria

Women entrepreneurs who want to expand on an existing business or seek new market opportunities outside of Canada may apply for this fund.

Required: Company is profitable; shareholders are committed to the company and have good financial controls and reporting.
Preferable: Company has a market advantage in a growing industry.
Not suitable for: Company start-ups or companies in a turnaround situation.

All BDC approvals are based on a case-by-case evaluation. BDC looks at your whole project - its viability, your management team, and your company's financial strength, commitment, and future prospects. This allows BDC to be more flexible, take greater risks, and to help an increasing number of innovative women entrepreneurs.

Eligible Area

All provinces and territories.

Eligible Activities

The fund may be applied towards:

acquisitions, management buy-outs, expansion, commercialization programs, intangible asset financing, working capital, insufficient working capital to finance growth, shareholders who want to minimize ownership dilution in raising equity and improvement of company capitalization.

Targeted industries are:

manufacturing;
aerospace;
health;
software;
Internet;
communications;
plastics;
forestry;
food;
furniture;
logistics; and
retail (if company owns more than 50% of product brands sold in the stores).

The industries which are not targeted are:

retail;
wholesale;
resource exploration; and
real estate.

Summary

BDC aims to provide women entrepreneurs with the necessary resources so they can expand their businesses and seek new market opportunities outside of Canada. The fund will primarily offer women entrepreneurs subordinate financing because the borrower has the obligation to repay the loan. It also has characteristics similar to equity financing in that the repayment of the loan is based on cash flow, instead of depreciating company assets.

Nunavut Contact(s):
See National Contact.

National Contact(s):
Head Office
Business Development Bank of Canada
Suite 400
5 Place Ville Marie
Montréal, Quebec H3B 5E7
Telephone: 1-888-463-6232
Fax: 1-877-329-9232
Toll-free (information): 1-877-BDC BANX (1-877-232-2269)
E-mail: info@bdc.ca
Web site: http://www.bdc.ca/en/home.htm

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