The Indy Chamber has launched a new initiative to cushion the blow dealt our economy by the 2020 Covid-19 outbreak. The recently-launched Rapid Response Hub has fielded questions from businesses located in every part of the state. Visitors can use the hub as a central source for news, resources, and guidance when faced with difficult business decisions.

Critically, the Rapid Response Hub is also working to provide loans to impacted businesses to keep them alive while they wait for slow Federal funds to arrive.

Shuttered businesses need cash now to pay their employees and bills. Without it, they’ll die, and Indiana will bounce back from this crisis weaker than it could. Although the federal government has promoted low-interest SBA loans as a solution to these businesses, the process for obtaining them is long and difficult. And, even if approved, funds will take weeks to arrive. The money simply does not arrive fast enough.

The Rapid Response Hub can quickly process loan applications of up to $25,000 and deliver the money to businesses that qualify. Rates are similar to SBA rates, and businesses that ultimately do receive SBA loans can use them to repay this temporary “bridge financing” too. The capital to provide the loans was collected from the City of Indianapolis, the Capital Improvement Board, and local companies and organizations like Anthem, LISC, and the Chamber itself.

Funding through the Indy Chamber effort is limited to businesses in the 9-county central Indiana region. And so far, no other Chamber in the state has this funding capability. Other cities, like Phoenix, Arizona, have modeled their local business responses to the outbreak off of the Indianapolis approach. Indiana cities may wish to do the same, to keep their businesses and employees “on ice” until they can reopen for business.