Money Store Investment Corp. has established a $150 million loan pool in the fastest-growing sector of the small-business market - companies owned by women.
The nation's biggest Small Business Administration lender created the pool for members of a new organization that has just started signing them up.
Women Inc. aims to steer credit to women entrepreneurs. The Sacramento, Calif.-based organization, which was founded in December, started taking membership applications at the end of May. It says it has already received membership requests from 6,000 women.
Women own an estimated 7.7 million businesses in the United States.
"We think it's a wonderful way for us to source business loans to these companies," said Marc Turtletaub, the Money Store's chief executive. "We believe this will be a significant organization."
Judith Luther Wilder, a co-founder of Women Inc. and its chief executive, said she was impressed by the Money Store's creativity.
She said the Union, N.J.-based company has agreed in certain cases to accept assets like education and experience as collateral.
"The Money Store really has the will to do this," said Ms. Luther Wilder. "It is the kind of company that is going to figure out ways to make something like this work."
Affiliations with women entrepreneurs have become popular among bank and nonbank lenders in recent months. In April, for example, People's Bank of Bridgeport, Conn., formed an alliance with the Entrepreneurial Center at Hartford College for Women to provide financial support services and coordinate all center activities.
But the Money Store's commitment is unique, said Ms. Luther Wilder, not only for its size, but also because no other lender was willing to create a loan pool for the start-up organization.
