Axios Hands Back Federal Small Business Loan After Criticism

Political news site Axios has handed back its near-$5 million federal small business loan. Jim VandeHei, co-founder and chief executive officer, made the announcement on its site after the venture-backed company received criticism over taking the loan from the $349 billion Payment Protection Program, aimed as an incentive for small businesses to keep their workers on the payroll. The PPP, run by the Small Business Administration, offers struggling small businesses up to $10 million and will forgive loans if all employees are kept on the payroll for eight weeks and the money is used for payroll, rent, mortgage interest or utilities. But in the weeks since the first round of PPP funds was made available, it emerged that a number of venture-backed or larger public companies were approved for the loans while many small businesses were not. In the case of Axios, it has 190 employees, much less than the 500 limit for a freestanding company, but the criticism stemmed from the fact that it is a media organization covering the federal government. It’s also thought to have raised tens of millions of dollars in past rounds of funding, with wealthy backers including Laurene Powell. “There has been a public backlash against a variety of

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