Lendistry Credit Facility Hits $100M as East West Bank Backs Airport Concessions Lending
- F.I. Editorial Team
- 15 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Quick Take: Lendistry secured a $100 million credit facility from East West Bank, with a $100 million accordion on top, dedicated to its Airport Concessions Program, which finances small businesses operating in airport terminals.
Lendistry, the Los Angeles-based small business lender and CDFI, announced last week that it has received a $100 million credit facility from East West Bank, including a $100 million accordion feature that expands borrowing capacity as the program grows. The capital is earmarked for a specific and genuinely unusual vertical: the company's Airport Concessions Program, which lends to the small businesses running restaurants, retail, and convenience outlets inside U.S. airport terminals.
The niche most lenders never see
Here's the part worth understanding. That Starbucks or burger spot in Terminal B is often a locally owned licensee or franchisee with the economic profile of a Main Street business. Many operate under Airport Concessions Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (ACDBE) certification, a federal program for airport contracting. And they are famously hard to finance: leasehold locations with no traditional collateral, revenue tied to concession agreements and passenger traffic, complex multi-party contracts with airport authorities, and cash flow that follows concession distribution schedules rather than a tidy monthly cycle.
Most credit boxes simply can't process that profile, which is exactly why Lendistry built a dedicated program for it. Since launching the ACP in 2019, the company has deployed $98 million to airport businesses across 16 states, with structures adapted to the vertical, including quarterly payment options aligned with how concession operators actually get paid. CEO Everett K. Sands said the company "built ACP with the right team and technology to provide the capital they need."
Key Terms
ACDBE: Airport Concessions Disadvantaged Business Enterprise, a federal certification for disadvantaged-owned businesses in airport concessions contracting.
CDFI: Community Development Financial Institution, a Treasury certification for lenders focused on underserved communities; Lendistry holds both CDFI and CDE status.
Accordion feature: The option to expand a facility's size (here, by another $100M) as the portfolio grows and conditions are met.
SBA 7(a): The SBA's flagship guaranteed loan program; Lendistry is an SBA Preferred Lender and describes itself as the second-largest non-bank 7(a) lender in the country.
A bank relationship that's compounding
This is East West Bank's second facility for Lendistry in two years. A $75 million line supported the lender's SBA 7(a) platform in 2025, and the bank came back with more for a different product. Andrew Stein, who leads commercial banking and specialty finance for East West's Eastern region, said the bank is "proud to serve as its financial bridge." For context on the capital provider: East West Bancorp reported $82.9 billion in total assets as of March 31, and the bank has built a specialty finance practice that includes exactly this kind of lender finance.
That repeat pattern is the tell. Banks don't expand relationships with non-bank lenders out of goodwill. They do it when the first facility performs. Lendistry, founded in 2015, says it has deployed more than $10.5 billion to small businesses using its own technology platform, much of it through state, federal, and corporate partnership programs.
Lendistry Credit Facility: The bigger picture
Deals like this cut against the lazy narrative that bank credit and non-bank lending are at war. What's actually happening is a division of labor: banks with balance sheets and low-cost deposits funding specialized originators who can underwrite what the bank's own credit box can't. East West has made a franchise of it, and mission-driven lenders like Lendistry, with CDFI status and government program experience, are natural partners.
