Southside Bethlehem KIZ offering low-interest loans to boost manufacturing

The Southside Bethlehem Keystone Innovation Zone (KIZ) has launched a new financing program.

This program is geared to give startups access to low-interest capital for components and inventory to help their companies grow and thrive in Bethlehem.

The KIZ is part of the Bethlehem Economic Development Corporation (BEDCO)

The Southside Bethlehem KIZ identified a need for this program after surveying current KIZ companies about the effectiveness of current programs and opportunities for new offerings. The current lending market further solidified the need for a low-interest financing program for startups.

This new inventory financing program will help startups with producing an initial batch of inventory, selling those products, reinvesting that revenue into more inventory, and continuing to repeat that cycle.

The goal is that by providing a low-interest loan for startups to invest in significant inventory will trigger economies-of-scale and allow for efforts to be focused on other parts of the business.

The interest rate is directly tied to where products and components are sourced from to incentivize supporting local manufacturers and suppliers.

The loans, which will be for three years and in the $50,000 range will have a 6% starting rate with lower interest rates available below if noted criteria is met:

• 5% interest rate if sourced from North America



• 3% interest rate if sourced from United States



• 2% interest rate if sourced from Pennsylvania



• 1% interest rate if sourced from Lehigh Valley

“The City of Bethlehem is an incredibly welcoming and supportive community for entrepreneurs and innovative start-up companies.” said BEDCO’s President, Mayor J. William Reynolds. “We want to continue to help startups succeed, so we are always looking to ensure that our program offerings align with these companies’ evolving needs. The Southside Bethlehem KIZ has innovated alongside our startups to provide financing that will help accelerate companies’ growth. At the same time, we’re incentivizing the utilization of local manufacturers through our unique interest rate structure.”

BEDCO is partnering with the Rising Tide Community Loan Fund, a subsidiary of Community Action Lehigh Valley, to assist with the administration of this financing program.

Eligible companies are for-profit business entities that are located within the Southside Bethlehem KIZ, have been in operation for less than eight years, operate within one of the KIZ targeted industry clusters, and are developing innovative technologies.

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