(a) The Director of the Alabama Development Office by rule shall establish the application procedures for certified capital companies.

(b) An applicant must file an application in the form prescribed by the Alabama Development Office accompanied by a nonrefundable application fee of seven thousand five hundred dollars ($7,500). The application must include an audited balance sheet of the applicant, with an unqualified opinion from an independent certified public accountant, as of a date not more than 35 days before the date of the application.

(c) To qualify as a certified capital company all of the following must apply:

(1) The applicant must have, at the time of application for certification, an equity capitalization of at least five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) in the form of cash or cash equivalents. The applicant must maintain this equity capitalization until it receives an allocation of certified capital pursuant to Section 40-14B-17.

(2) At least two principals or persons employed or engaged to manage the funds of the applicant must have at least four years of experience making venture capital investments in small businesses on behalf of or as an institutional or accredited investor.

(3) The applicant must satisfy any additional reasonable informational requirement imposed by the Alabama Development Office by rule.

(4) The applicant must have incorporated or organized within the State of Alabama no later than 15 days before applying for certification.

(5) The applicant must have established an office within the State of Alabama before or within 60 days of certification.

(d) The Director of the Alabama Development Office shall review the application, organizational documents, and business history of each applicant and shall ensure that the applicant satisfies the requirements of this chapter.

(e) Not later than the 30th day after the date an application is filed, the Director of the Alabama Development Office shall either issue the certification or refuse to issue the certification and communicate in detail to the applicant the grounds for the refusal, including suggestions for the removal of these grounds. If an applicant submits an amended application within 15 days of receipt of refusal from the office, the office shall have 15 days from the receipt of such amended application by which to communicate its approval or refusal of such amended application to the applicant. The office shall review and approve or reject applications in the order submitted, and in the event more than one application is received by the office on any date, all such applications shall be reviewed and approved simultaneously, except in the case of incomplete applications or applications for which additional information is requested by the office and is not supplied by the applicant within the allowable time limits established by the office.