SOREDI Loan Program
SOREDI has a loan fund that helps to provide financing for small businesses who may have limited access to capital.
The goal of these funds is to help benefit and grow Southern Oregon’s business environment.
Funds are typically issued on a term lending basis. Interest is typically higher than traditional financing because of the inherent risk associated with these types of businesses.
Connect with SOREDI
A few of our happy clients
Debt Financing
Debt Financing (taking out a loan) is ideal for more established businesses that can show historical operations and cash flow. Taking this approach means you'll pay interest and have to provide collateral, but you don’t have to give away any equity or ownership.
Watch this short video from our Ashland Chamber of Commerce to learn a little more about the types of documentation you will need to secure financing.
Here are some of our local providers.
Equity Financing & Venture Capital
What's the difference?
Equity financing typically involves giving up a percentage of equity (ownership) in your company, in exchange for capital.
Venture capital is investing, usually by a firm, to support startup and early-stage companies that have very high growth potential.
Raising either equity finance or venture capital is hard, requires persistence, tenacity and, of course, connections.
First round: Work your own network to get that first round of finance-- this is often referred to as the “Friends, Family and Fools” route.
Second round: Venture capital (VC) or private equity firms can help. A full list of statewide Venture Capital / Angel funds can be found here.
Note: Before you reach out to any firm, it's critical that you do your industry research. Some useful tools for this are CrunchBase and AngelList, and FinSMES. These are great resources for seeing activity in your industry, such as which VC firms are investing in which companies. Showing solid activity (mergers & acquisitions or other liquidity events) in your sector is important when convincing a potential investor to put money in.
Other Sources of Financing
Alternative Lending/Crowdfunding