USDA grant to help create Rural Venture Accelerator

The Iowa Foundation for Microenterprise and Community Vitality (Iowa Microloan) has received a $99,000 USDA Rural Business Development Grant to develop a Rural Ventures Accelerator program in partnership with Ag Ventures Alliance, based in Mason City, and Iowa State University.   The program seeks to develop a collaboration that provides targeted business and development with technical assistance to “assist strategic rural ventures and smaller rural communities that may not have the capacity and local networks that larger communities possess."