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# Investing in America featured stories

###         Allegiant Electric, Las Vegas, Nevada      

Founded by Andrea Vigil in 2015, Allegiant Electric is an electric commercial, industrial, and residential service in Las Vegas, NV. Allegiant scaled quickly, growing from three employees to 27 in its first four years but the company faced headwinds when the COVID pandemic hit. With the help of SBA loans and business leadership training, Allegiant was able to survive, hire eight new employees, purchase three service vehicles, and increase its job bidding capacity to $1,000,000. 

Allegiant now contracts with the Department of Veterans Affairs. With the installation of 16 electric vehicle charging stations at Allegiant Stadium, the company is also contributing to meeting the President’s goal of 50% electric vehicle shares in the U.S. by 2030.

###         Dunamis Charge, Detroit, Michigan      

In 2012, Natalie** **King founded Dunamis Charge, the first-ever African American women-owned electric vehicle charger manufacturing company in the United States. Her company successfully navigated the COVID pandemic with the help of SBA loans as part of the Paycheck Protection Program and COVID Economic Injury Disaster Loan programs. Today, Dunamis employs more than 135 workers and is slated to manufacture 400,000 electric vehicle chargers by 2025. In March 2023, King introduced President Biden at the Small Business Administration’s Women’s Business Summit, where she shared that the Administration’s investments in clean energy and small business owners helped her business thrive throughout the pandemic.

###         Hero Plumbing, Milwaukee, Wisconsin      

Rashawn Spivey founded Hero Plumbing in Milwaukee, WI in 2010 after graduating from a plumbing program at Milwaukee Area Technical College and completing an apprenticeship with Plumbers Local 75. Spivey was able to navigate Hero Plumbing through the pandemic with the help of the Paycheck Protection Program and went on to expand his plumbing business to focus on lead pipe replacements in response to historic funding under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the American Rescue Plan. To date, Spivey and his team have replaced more than 825 toxic lead pipes, primarily at local daycare centers, making drinking water safer and protecting children and the community from lead poisoning

###         Martinez Couch and Associates, Rocky Hill, Connecticut      

Martinez Couch and Associates (MCA) is a minority-owned former SBA 8(a)-certifiedengineering firm founded by Richard Couch and Rafael Martinez in 1999. MCA is one of 12 small business subcontractors working to replace a critical bridge in Windham, Connecticut—a $10 million project funded by the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. These small business subcontractors received nearly $9.7 million in combined SBA assistance including through the Paycheck Protection Program, Economic Injury Disaster Loans, 504, and SBA Express loans. The new bridge will carry traffic on Route 66 over the New England Central Railroad. 

###         SPR Construction, Albany, New York      

SPR Construction is an SBA 8(a)-certified construction business founded by Pritesh Patel in 2010 in Albany, NY. SPR faced hardship during the COVID pandemic as projects were paused or canceled, but in March 2022, the business turned a corner when SPR received a $4.5M contract for pavement improvements at Morristown National Historical Park in New Jersey as part of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. 

With the help of this contract, Pritesh was able to create 3 new full-time jobs and scaled operations to take on larger projects. In September 2023, SPR also received an $18.9M contract to renovate a New York Air National Guard Facility at Niagara Falls International Airport, which was also funded under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.