The Non-Bank Business Lending Landscape: Who Funds Small Businesses Outside the Banks
Ask a restaurant owner where their last round of working capital came from, and the answer is less and less often their bank. It came from a revenue-based funder, a factoring company that bought their invoices, an equipment finance shop, or a lender connected to the software they already run the business on.
That market is big, fragmented and hard to see in one place. Directories list companies. They rarely show how the pieces fit together, who overlaps with whom, or which segments are crowded and which are thin.
So we mapped it. The Non-Bank Business Lending Landscape is a live, interactive map of U.S. non-bank lenders and verified direct funders, built from our own data as well as public sources and placed in every product each company lends. But not every company is listed. More on that later.
What the map covers
The scope is deliberate. Mainstream national and regional banks are out, and so are credit unions. Bank-owned lending subsidiaries stay in, because they compete for the same deals as independent lenders. SBA lenders are left off this map as well, since SBA lending has its own set of tools.
Every company sits in each segment where it actually lends. A funder that offers both revenue-based financing and equipment finance shows up in both. Plenty of shops don't stay in one lane, and the map shows that overlap instead of forcing each company into a single box.
Click a segment to zoom in, click a dot to open that company's profile, or search any company by name.
Who's in the business lending landscape?
The landscape is organized by segment:
RBF / MCA funders: revenue-based financing and merchant cash advance funders, the largest segment on the map by a wide margin.
Term loans: non-bank lenders offering fixed-term business loans.
Lines of credit: revolving credit lines from online and specialty lenders.
Equipment finance: loans and leases secured by the equipment being bought.
Factoring: companies that advance cash against a business's unpaid invoices.
Asset-based lending: credit facilities secured by receivables, inventory and other business assets.
Cards & spend: business credit cards and spend platforms that extend credit.
Startup financing: capital built for businesses too young for most underwriting boxes.
Cannabis funding: lenders and funders that work with cannabis operators, a segment most banks still avoid.
Specialty: lenders whose products don't fit neatly in the other segments.
Why brokers and funders use it
For a broker, the value is speed. When a file doesn't fit the funder you usually send to, the map shows who else lends in that product. From a company's profile you can take the next step, including requesting an introduction where the profile offers it.
For funders and lenders, it's a read on the competitive field: who is crowding into your segment, who sits in the segments next to yours, and where you appear alongside them.
For fintech vendors and anyone selling into the industry, it's the whole non-bank market at a glance, sorted by what each company actually does.
Free for members
The full map sits behind the member login, and membership costs nothing. Create a free Funder Intel account; once approved, you can log in, and the Business Lending Landscape is yours to explore.
This is the kind of analysis members get. Once you're in, the rest of Intel opens up too, including the members-only Commercial Finance Registration Database, the Deal Tape tracker of capital raises and acquisitions, the Working Capital Tracker and our Porter's Five Forces report on alternative business lending.
Don't see your company?
The map is live and growing. If you lend to small businesses outside the bank system and your company isn't on it, add your business and tell us what you lend.
Already on the map but in the wrong segment, or your products have changed? Contact us, and we'll take a look.
Start with the map, then dig into everything else in Intel.