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Jonathan Poole, Finance Authority of Maine
January 13, 2025
How to leverage the Maine Funding Network for alternative funding
By Jonathan Poole, Finance Authority of Maine
Everyone has a story about Maine connections. U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, says he can go up to a car with Maine plates at any I-95 rest stop and identify a common acquaintance within a few minutes. Or maybe you commented on a Yarmouth Clam Festival T-shirt in Lahaina to someone who turned out to be your neighbor’s cousin. Maine is built on relationships.
This is not always the case in the business community, where Maine companies, busy with their daily efforts to produce products and provide services to customers, are often too busy to identify, or unaware of, the various financing resources available to them, both public and private.
Or, if they are aware of such services, it can be difficult for them to navigate the hodgepodge of various local, regional, and state economic development entities. Access to a central site featuring alternative funding sources is important to business growth; these funders are willing to underwrite loans that may be too risky for conventional financing or invest in ventures with less certain returns.
A central resource for alternative financing in Maine
In May 2024 the state launched the Maine Funding Network, a group of over 20 public financing and advisory organizations wishing to help Maine businesses by streamlining the process of securing alternate business funding. Some members provide funding, others provide advisory services, some provide both. The program focuses on debt and equity financing, and not on grants, although some members are also grantors. Some members provide services to limited geographic areas. The Finance Authority of Maine (FAME) administers the program.
The process
The process starts at the Network’s online portal (www.mainefundingnetwork.com) and moves rapidly to establish a direct connection to a funder or advisor.
The process, in a nutshell, works like this:
- A business creates an account and fills out a common “match request” form. The application gathers information such as industry, funding goals and location to identify funding matches.
- The platform uses the information to identify the partner organizations best fitting the business’s type and goal automatically. The match request process not only saves businesses the legwork of identifying alternative funders, it saves them the time required to fill out applications when they may not be a good match for the funder’s specific criteria.
- After the business has reviewed its funding matches and has identified its best options, it selects which options to pursue. It is then connected directly with the potential funding partners.
- The funding partners work with the business to collect additional information needed for loans or equity financing.
The Maine Funding Network is collaborative
The partner organizations can work with each other to create funding packages for an applicant. This potentially increases the total amount of funding available to any given applicant, while facilitating reporting to financing organizations. Similarly, they can serve as resources for commercial banks and are familiar with creating public/private funding packages.
If an applicant is not ready for funding, the Network redirects the applicant to one of its advisory members. These members help the business understand and prioritize the steps it should take to qualify for funding.
The future
The Network is actively seeking new members. The process of setting up the program has helped to identify additional resources within Maine. National and regional public capital funds, like the Cooperative Fund of the Northeast (a current member), are likely areas for expansion in the near term.
The network already includes private investor groups, such as the Maine Angels, who have fewer legal constraints on where they can invest. There is no reason why similar investment groups interested in Maine, but not necessarily based in Maine, could not join.
Members
Maine Funding Network members include:
- Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments
- Black-Owned Maine
- Coastal Enterprises Inc.
- CEI Women’s Business Center
- City of Portland
- Community Concepts Finance Corp.
- Cooperative Fund of the Northeast
- Eastern Maine Development Corp.
- Finance Authority of Maine
- Four Directions Development Corp.
- Greater Portland Council of Governments
- Immigrant Welcome Center
- Maine Angels
- Maine Office of Business Development
- Small Business Development Centers of Maine
- Maine Technology Institute
- Maine Venture Fund
- Northern Maine Development Commission
- SCORE
- Southern Maine Finance Authority
- Southern Maine Planning and Development Commission
- Sunrise County Economic Council.
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