Small Business Investment Act of 1958 & the First Venture-Backed Startup

A significant step towards fostering the private equity industry in the United States was the passage of The Small Business Investment Act of 1958, which provided access to federal capital to investment firms licensed as Small Business Investment Companies (SBICs) that could then be leveraged against private equity funds. As a result, private company investment practices and would-be venture capitalists began to develop. The first venture-backed startup, Fairchild Semiconductor, was funded in 1959.