Cloud services provider Fusion Telecommunications International has closed a $22.5 million round of financing, composed of $6.03 million in equity, and $16.5 million in term debt. Fusion also raised $16.5 million through the issuance of 5-year senior notes to Praesidian Capital and Plexus Capital.

Frontier Capital has invested in e-VERIFILE along with CEO Mark Wilson, The Yucaipa Companies, Magic Johnson Enterprises and Plexus Capital. Financial services were not announced. e-VERIFILE provides risk assessment, administrative support and workforce solutions. PRESS RELEASE Frontier Capital is pleased to announce its recent investment in e-VERIFILE, Inc., in partnership with experienced CEO, Mark Wilson, [...]

During President Obama’s first term, the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Small Business Investment Company program has committed more capital to investors backing growth plays at the current—and dirt cheap—interest rate of about three percent.

It’s because investors are increasingly seeking out SBIC funding to support mezzanine deals, growth plays and smaller buyouts. The SBIC program lent $1.2 billion last fiscal year (each ends Sept. 30) and will surely approve funds exceeding that amount this year, but it still has hundreds of millions of dollars that go unused thanks to too few applicants and too few approvals. Yet, the capital committed by the program over the past full fiscal year represents an increase over the four prior years’ commitment levels by a whopping 55 percent. Experts believe the gap in capital allotted to the program and the amount it actually deploys will continue to shrink; difficulty raising debt has turned more investment firms that would usually sneer at the prospect of partnering with the government instead into eager recipients of discount debt.

Plexus Capital, the North Carolina-based private equity firm, has raised $165 million to operate as a Small Business Investment Company private equity fund. The fund is the PE firm’s second; it will make loans and equity investments in small to mid-sized businesses. Plexus has prior investments in building materials and dry cleaning supply companies, among other industries.