Two Bethlehem companies were among the startups that received funding from the Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

The National Energy Improvement Fund of Allentown, a B-Corp. energy efficiency lender, purchased the assets of My Strong Home PBC and its property and casualty insurance operation, MSH Services LLC.

State officials provided more guidelines for the $225 million small businesses grant program announced earlier this week, which officials say will start accepting applications by the end of June.

While many bank branches have either been closed or run with limited face-to-face interactions, behind the scenes, banks in the region say they have been busier with ever as they try to meet the needs of commercial and banking customers through the COVID-19 crisis.

The Wolf administration will use $225 million from its federal CARES Act allocation to provide liquidity to Pennsylvania small businesses that are financially struggling in the aftermath of the forced shutdown orders instituted to slow the spread of COVID-19.

A big day for an Allentown company today. Not only did Shift4 Payments Inc. have an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange this morning, it became the first company to get to ring the bell opening the NYSE since the COVID-19 crisis shut down the trading floor.

The changes arrive as many employers near the end of their eight-week coverage period during which they are required use their disbursements to bring back their full-time employee counts to pre-pandemic levels to qualify for SBA forgiveness. The new bill would triple that covered period to 24 weeks.

House lawmakers passed a bill late last week that would loosen restrictions on businesses using Paycheck Protection Program funds to retain and rehire workers, as federal policymakers work to revise the PPP to help companies recover in the aftermath of mandated closures.

The Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley is receiving $1.8 million from the CARES Act passed by Congress in March.

More than $6 billion of remaining Paycheck Protection Program funds will be reserved for Community Development Financial Institutions to lend to a broader demographic of small business owners, federal officials announced on Thursday.