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CloseFundera Review
What's the best small business loan? Ask Fundera — and they'll show you the top loans you’re eligible for.
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Recent times haven’t been kind towards small businesses, not even one tiny bit. If you’re in charge of a small business, you probably feel like a good loan is exactly what your company needs to get through the economic crisis we’re experiencing.
Luckily, you don’t have to scour the web looking for the best possible loan for your situation. Fundera is an online loan marketplace built to find a perfect loan for you. Here’s a short explanation of how this service works.
You sign up and give Fundera some personal financial data like your credit score and company revenue – this will likely take a few minutes. After that, Fundera will present you with all loans you’re eligible for. For example, if you’re looking for an SBA, it will show you all the best SBAs in the country so you don’t have to waste time searching and researching.
Maybe you’re looking for a PPP – a conditionally free loan that you can use to pay your employees. In that case, Fundera is definitely the right place.
Big banks have done a subpar job at giving out government-issued Payroll Protection Programs, but fintech companies have stepped in to save the day. Now, services like Fundera are the quickest and safest way for you to get your hands on that sweet, free government money.
Whatever type of business loan you need, you can find it online – but it pays to have a good guide. Let’s take a deeper look into Fundera’s offer and see if this company is the guide that will lead you to the best of all possible loans. Remember, many loans are offering incredibly low APRs right now, so it doesn’t hurt to seize the opportunity while it lasts.
Fast Facts
- Minimum Credit Score: 550
- Interest Rates: 6.5% to 30%
- Application Response Time: 24 hours max
- Funding Received: 1 day to 3 weeks
Ratings
- Loan options: 8/10
- Rates & Fees: 8/10
- Application & Requirements: 7/10
- Safety: 10/10
- Customer support: 10/10
- Overall: 8.5/10
What is Fundera?
Founded in 2014, Fundera is a New York-based online loan aggregator service. The company specializes in providing small business loans by bringing together users with potential lenders. Simply put, users write their financial info on the website, and the website sends them offers from all interested creditors.
What makes Fundera special is probably how accessible its service is. The company is geared for users who want to get small business loans quickly and through a single, easy-to-use platform. Fundera provides users with other products like merchant cash advances and business credit cards – the company has also been one of the most efficient at recommending and giving out PPP loans.
Fundera grew by over 4,000% from 2014 to 2017 and is currently going north at a steady pace. This type of service is taking up more and more space in the financial sectors, and Fundera is one of the top players, especially when it comes to small business loans.
Fundera Overview and Summary
- Fundera is an online lending marketplace specialized for small business loans.
- The company offers a wide range of business loans including SBAs and the popular PPP loans.
- Signing up and applying for loans is very quick and fully digital.
- The minimum required credit score is 550, and interest rates range between very competitive and average.
- The platform is very safe and protects your information from lenders you didn’t approve of, so they won’t send you promotional emails or call you on the phone.
- The customer service is excellent and gets praise all-around. The agents can even personally help customers understand and choose the perfect loan.
- Fundera and other similar services are the best places to go if you need a PPP loan. They are dramatically quicker than traditional banks.
Fundera Loan Options
Fundera is partnered with several lenders that offer its clients most types of small business loans. The company also offers lines of credit of up to $1 million and has relatively flexible repayment terms ranging from 1 to 5 years. Here are the 6 types of loans you can find on Fundera’s platform:
- SBA loan
- Term loan
- Invoice financing
- Line of credit
- Equipment loan
- Merchant cash advance
- PPP loan
The most popular type of loan for small businesses, the SBA, is what Fundera is great at. This is one of the most popular types of loans because it can often be a saving grace for small businesses, which have had to bear the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic. The platform offers a wide variety of SBA loans – they range from as little as $5,000 to $5 million and have flexible 5-25 year repayment terms.
| Description | Invoice Factoring | Equipment Loans | LoC | STL/MCA | MTL | SBA 7(a) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loans Amount | $5k-$15m | $5k-$25kk | $10k-$250k | $5k-$1m | $25k-$400k | $25k-$350k |
| Rates | 9%-12% | 4%-30% | 1.18-1.22 | 1.20-1.40 | 9%-20% | 6% |
| Terms | 1-6 months | 2-5 years | 6-18 months | 3-15 months | 1-8 years | 10 years |
| Number of Lenders | 3+ | 2+ | 3+ | 7+ | 3+ | 3+ |
| Min. Credit Score | 530 | 600 | 680 | 500 | 660 | 680 |
| Avg. Time to Fund | 1-4 days | 2-3 weeks | 1-3 days | 1 day | 1 week | 10-25 days |
Fundera can also fund invoice payments. You can get a loan for 50%-90% of the invoice, and after it is paid, you will get the other 10%-50% minus Fundera’s fees.
Pros
- Can be synced with popular accounting programs like QuickBooks and Xero
- Keeps user info private, keeping away annoying ads
- Eligibility tracker helps users know as soon as they meet the requirements for better loans
- Very good reputation and customer support
Cons
- Some lenders might have additional fees
- Relatively few lenders are available
- Interest rates can be high
Can I Get a PPP Loan Through Fundera?
Yes, but let’s see what these loans are first. Payroll Protection Programs (PPPs) are new types of government-issued loans designed to help small businesses pay their workers on time amid the economic crisis we’re in.
It’s also not your usual loan. If you use a PPP as dictated by the government and your company pushes through this age of low demand, your loan will be forgiven.
Essentially, PPP means free money if you use it right, however, the government has had a really hard time giving out PPPs. The big banks simply can not provide these loans efficiently, and Fundera’s CEO goes as far as to say that the PPP situation is complete chaos for the banking system.
So, getting a PPP through your bank might avail to nothing. Luckily, getting this loan through a loan aggregator like Fundera is very quick and simple.
You can contact Fundera’s customer support by phone and they will talk you through the entire borrowing process and explain PPPs in detail. After you know where you stand, you can apply in just a few minutes.
Finding out whether you’re eligible and getting a PPP through Fundera is very easy, but there are a few rules you must know before getting this loan:
- At least 60% of your PPP money must be used for paying your employees. The other 40% can go towards other expenses.
- If you get a PPP, you can’t lower your employee count. You must maintain the number of workers you had on your payroll before you applied for the loan.
- You can’t lower salaries by more than 25%. The salaries must remain at 75% or above of what they were previously.
- Rehiring grace period – you can rehire all employees that were fired or put on furlough and give them their old paycheck. This expense will be covered by the PPP.
Big banks are processing PPPs very slowly, but are making a killing doing so – which probably means they are without incentive to improve their service. All in all, online lending marketplaces like Fundera are the most reliable places for PPPs at the moment. Just keep this in mind – you need to know how PPP loan forgiveness works to relieve yourself of debt and help your business through these crazy times.
Fundera Compared
- Term Loans: 7 - 30%
- Startup Loans: 7.9 - 19.9%
5.99 - 24.99%
550
640
1 - 5 years
2 - 5 years
Small business loans
Borrowers with good credit
5.99 - 24.99%
20 - 80%
640
560
2 - 5 years
6 - 18 months
Borrowers with good credit
Short-term bad credit business loans
Estimated APR
- Term Loans: 7 - 30%
- Startup Loans: 7.9 - 19.9%
5.99 - 24.99%
20 - 80%
Minimum credit score
550
640
560
Loan term
1 - 5 years
2 - 5 years
6 - 18 months
Best for
Small business loans
Borrowers with good credit
Short-term bad credit business loans
Fundera’s Rates and Fees
If you look at Fundera’s advertisements, you’ll see that the APR’s offered on its platform are very competitive. This is true, however, only if you’re a qualified user. Customers that don’t meet lenders’ requirements will only have access to higher APRs.
Because of this, it’s hard to precisely depict what interest rates you can expect to see on Fundera’s menu. Here are some numbers you can expect to see if you have a good credit score and qualify for most of Fundera’s loans.
| Type of Loan | APR | Fees |
|---|---|---|
| SBA Loan | 6.5% - 14% | 0% - 4.322% |
| Term Loan | 7%-30% | Fees depend on the lender |
| Business Line of Credit | 7%-25% | Fees depend on the lender |
| Merchant Cash Advance | 1.14 - 1.18 factor fees | 1.14 - 1.18 factor fees |
| Equipment Loan | 8% - 30% | Fees depend on the lender |
What Are Fundera’s Fees?
As an online lending marketplace, Fundera doesn’t charge customers any fees for most loans. Fundera makes money by charging the lenders 2%-5% once you take out their loan, so you don’t pay anything if you hadn’t taken out a loan previously.
Fundera is very transparent when it comes to fees, and we only found a few, ranging from 1.5% to 3% for certain types of SBA loans. Also, some lenders might up their price a bit to make up for the difference they have to pay Fundera.
So, the worst-case scenario is that you have to pay slightly more when going through Fundera than you would if you went to the lenders directly. Other fees depend on the lender, so make sure you check them out when going through the offers you get from Fundera.
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Fundera’s Application Process
You can complete the full application process online and it shouldn’t take more than a few minutes. You only need to give Fundera some personal info like your name, company revenue, etc. All applications get approved within 24 hours, which is fairly quick.
After that, you will fill out a survey that tells Fundera what kind of loans you might like. Then, you can choose from the loans offered to you and pick your favorite one.
The Five Steps of Fundera’s Application Process
- Apply on Fundera’s website
- Write some fundamental info about your company – revenue, avg order size, debts, company’s bank account balance, etc.
- Wait up to 24h to get approved
- Choose from the list of lenders you are offered
- Contact the lenders through Fundera and discuss your loan terms with them directly
Applying is very quick, but actually getting approved for a loan and receiving the money can take anywhere from 1 day to 3 weeks, which means that Fundera might not be the best place to go if you need a loan ASAP. There are many quick-payout lenders around today, and you can get their best loans if your credit score is in the mid 600s.
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Fundera Loan Requirements Explained
Most of Fundera’s partners only accept applications from customers with credit scores above 550. You can find personal loans for lower credit scores, but this credit rating is very approachable too – this makes Fundera suitable for small businesses that are just starting up. If this number is too high for your company at the moment and you aren’t sure how you can reach it, it might be a good idea to learn how to build your credit so you can get those good-credit loans.
Other requirements depend on the lenders. Some might ask you for your balance sheets, tax returns, bank statements, profit/loss statements, etc. To be time-efficient, you should have all these documents ready before applying for a loan.
Fundera also has an interesting feature called the eligibility tracker. Essentially, this is a tool that will tell you whether you’re eligible for the type of loan you want based on your financial info.
This tool will track your data, and should your FICO or other credit factors improve, you will be notified. This way, you’ll know as soon as you’re eligible for better loan offers, which can give you more options and potentially save you tons of money on interest rates.
🏆 Do you have excellent credit? See our top personal loans for borrowers with excellent credit.
Safety with Fundera
As Fundera is only a portal through which you can find lenders, it won’t keep you safe from all possible problems that can arise from online borrowing. However, Fundera is partnered with legitimate, reputable lenders and offers a certain degree of protection.
- Your private info remains private
Some loan aggregators will give all your data to lenders, regardless of whether you’ve approved them or not. This means lenders can bombard you with advertisement emails and phone calls if they fancy you as a potential customer. On the other hand, Fundera only gives your data to lenders that you’ve previously approved – this is a major boon for your privacy and peace of mind. - Know your rights
On Fundera’s website, you can find a detailed document that explains what is and what isn’t within your rights. By knowing what’s what, you’re protected from potential fraud – this is always a top priority for borrowers. - Customer support tells you what you need to know
If you’re new to SBAs, PPPs, and other mysterious types of loans, there are likely many things you don’t know and understand yet. Seeing a ton of customer feedback has told us that Fundera’s customer service agents will take the time to analyze your situation, explain what’s what, and recommend a prudent course of action for you. This fact is very reassuring in these turbulent times, and simply speaking with an expert can save you the time you would otherwise have to spend researching. - Reputation and security
Fundera’s website and all your data are protected by Norton Secured, which means your personal info will not get leaked or stolen by hackers easily. The company also has very positive customer feedback – Fundera has an A+ rating with the BBB and a top rating with TrustPilot.
Searching for a lending platform that’s known to offer a low APR? See our comprehensive Prosper Loans review.
Fundera’s Customer Service
Going through public comments and reviews, we found that the opinions on Fundera’s customer support are overwhelmingly positive. Customers can contact customer service via phone and email, and you can also speak to dedicated loan experts that will help you with all legal and other issues you might find important.
According to customer feedback, Fundera’s agents really take the time to help and answer all questions. Taking out a loan is a serious matter, and having an expert to help you understand your rights and obligations, as well as find the best possible offer is truly valuable – especially if you’re new to these types of loans.
We found a lot of user comments explaining this, which convinced us that Fundera’s customer service at least does a great job most of the time. Also, we couldn’t find many negative comments at all. Here’s an example of one of these positive comments:
We decided to test the reputation of Fundera’s customer service, so we sent them an email inquiry. Just 30 minutes later, we got a helpful, precise answer. Compared to other customer service teams we’ve come across in the financial sector, Fundera’s is super-quick and professional, which is heart-warming. Here’s our little chat:
How Lending Platforms Are Saving Millions of Jobs
The U.S. government has had a noble idea of giving out PPPs to help small businesses pay their workers in this period of slow business and low demand. This free money came as a godsend for many companies, but many others simply couldn’t get their hands on this government funding. Why?
It has a lot to do with the fact that our usual lending services – the big banks – are doing a very poor job of processing these loans and giving them to businesses. In some cases, the banks are just very ineffective, while in others it is a combination of subpar service and outright rotten behavior towards customers.
If you’re a small business owner and you need a PPP to pay your people and keep the company afloat – you’re in the same boat as many, many Americans. If this is your situation, then poor and slow service like the ones at most big banks is simply unacceptable. So, who can we turn to in these troublesome times if not the mighty banking sector?
Fret not, new fintech solutions have come to the rescue. Many online lending platforms, Fundera included, are able to process your loan applications very quickly and give you funding as soon as possible. It takes just a few minutes to apply for a loan at these online platforms, and their customer support is there to guide customers through the process if necessary.
Thanks to online lending platforms, it is possible for the government to give loans out to citizens – and Uncle Sam is heavily relying on services like Fundera right now. As a consequence, millions of jobs in the U.S.of jobs have been saved and more will be saved still.
All in all, traditional banks have missed the boat and caused trouble for working Americans and their bosses alike. Through its role in PPP distribution, the fintech industry has presented itself as the future of the financial sector, with much room to grow and improve. So, if you need a PPP and are unsure of where to look for one – it’s probably best to look at a good, reputable online lending marketplace.
✅ Looking to maintain your hard-earned credit score? Take a look at the top credit monitoring services to safeguard your identity — and your credit score.
Conclusion
If you want a loan to fund your business, need a PPP, or just want to browse, Fundera is a good option. This online lending marketplace is made for business loans – it also has dedicated customer service that can help borrowers understand what they’re getting into and how they can find the perfect loan for their situation. Users that are new to loans appreciate this kind of service very much, which is why Fundera gets top ratings and great customer feedback wherever you look.
Being a loan aggregator specialized for small business loans comes with its strengths, but also its weaknesses. The number of lenders is limited and you’ll probably want to look elsewhere if you’re looking for the top personal loans or other services.
Fundera FAQs
-
Is Fundera a Bank?
No. Fundera is an online marketplace that connects lenders to potential borrowers. YOu can think of it as a dating app for loans.
Essentially, users sign up and provide their financial data, after which Fundera shows them all the best loans they’re eligible for. Fundera is partnered with multiple banks that give out these loans, but is not a bank itself – just a medium between borrowers and lenders.
-
How Does Fundera Make Money?
Fundera has two main sources of income. The first are the fees they charge lenders – lenders pay Fundera a fee equal to 2%-5% of the money they borrowed to a Fundera user. The second source of income are borrowing fees – sometimes, borrowers have to pay Fundera a fee of up to 3%, but most loans won’t burden the borrower with fees at all.
-
Can I Get a PPP With Fundera?
Yes. If you want a PPP loan, you can speak with Fundera’s expert over the phone and they will explain what you need and how you can use this loan optimally. Nowadays, getting a PPP loan through a loan aggregator like Fundera is much quicker than going through a traditional bank.
-
Who Qualifies for SBA Loans?
There are a few requirements you have to meet. Your company has to have fewer than 500 workers, and less than $7.5 million per year in revenue.
Also, your net income must be under $5 million. The minimum credit score for an SBA is 550, but the range of loans you can get with this rating is limited.
-
What Can SBA Funds Be Used For?
Eligible enterprises can use these funds to buy equipment, repair assets, acquire land, buy a new business, expand an existing business, refinance debts, buy inventory, as well as pay for startup costs. Depending on what type of SBA loan you get, it might have even more uses.
-
Is Fundera Legitimate?
Yes – first of all, Fundera is quite picky when it comes to partners. It might have a smaller number of lenders on its platform, but they are all reputable sources of funding. Moreover, Fundera’s website is protected by Norton Secure and the company can boast about having a great reputation and highly positive customer feedback.
Fundera and the Competition
See how Fundera compares to the top lending platforms by reading one of the reviews below.
All reviews, research, news and assessments of any kind on The Tokenist are compiled using a strict editorial review process by our editorial team. Neither our writers nor our editors receive direct compensation of any kind to publish information on tokenist.com. Our company, Tokenist Media LLC, is community supported and may receive a small commission when you purchase products or services through links on our website. Click here for a full list of our partners and an in-depth explanation on how we get paid.
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