Gen Y Capital Partners Pays Young Entrepreneurs’ Student Loans

The Young Entrepreneur Council, a non-profit organization aimed at supporting young entrepreneurs, announced today its Gen Y Capital Partners, an early stage venture accelerator focused on entrepreneurs 35 and under, with heavy emphasis on recent college grads.

Y it Matters

We’ve already got YCombinator. We’ve got The Founder Institute. Why do we need yet another startup incubator you may ask? There are a few features that make Gen Y Capital Partners stand out:

First: The program focuses beyond tech startups. Gen Y is looking for “highly scalable, ‘tech enabled’ businesses in verticals and markets that are traditionally ignored or overlooked.” With so much of the startup world making stars out of tech companies, this is refreshing news.

Second: In addition to offering mentoring and cash (Gen Ywill invest $250,000 in 30-50 companies in exchange for equity), participants will have their student loan obligations paid for up to three years.

The White House today announced that it would be extending its Income Based Repayment program, typically aimed at borrowers with low income, to entrepreneurs, in an effort to lower their monthly payments, giving them more cash flow to start their businesses.  Gen Y Capital Partners is the first venture fund to participate in this program.

“When President Obama launched the Startup America initiative earlier this year, he called on the private sector to do more than business as usual to promote the next generation of high-growth entrepreneurs.  The new Gen Y Capital Partners answers this call to action, drawing more young entrepreneurs ‘off the bench’ to start innovative companies that boost job growth, and complementing the Administration’s ongoing efforts to help borrowers manage student loan debt.” said Tom Kalil, Deputy Policy Director at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Scott Gerber, Founder of the Young Entrepreneur Council says:

“The Income Based Repayment program will unlock startup and operating capital for countless numbers of aspiring, college debt-ridden young entrepreneurs.  By pairing its benefits with Gen Y’s various tools, we will be able to remove many of the barriers to entry from the startup equation, and create a new scalable approach to investing in our nation’s most promising Millenial entrepreneurs.”