State governments as financiers of technology startups: Evidence from Michigan's R&D loan program

•Uses proprietary data on startups that compete for R&D loans through a Michigan-based program in the decade of the 2000s.•Finds a large and enduring effect of award receipt on firm survival.•Finds amplified effects of award receipt on the follow-on financing and business development activities of surviving companies that are very young, inexperienced in external fundraising, or located outside the dominant hub of entrepreneurial activity within the state.•Provides the first systematic evaluation of a state-government loan program for advanced research and technology commercialization projects.•Adds to growing evidence that public R&D programs are particularly beneficial when frictions in private resource markets are more severe.