Custom private lending for small businesses · $100K–$10M

Business Loans byBusiness Owners

We’re not a bank. We’re operators who have built, bought, and run companies — and we build each loan around what your business actually needs: real-estate-backed loans, receivables-backed lines of credit, factoring, or the structure that fits. Never a credit box.

See if you qualify in 60 secondsGive us a call

No documents, no credit pull, no contact information to see if you qualify.

Since 1993Lending to business owners
10%+Of our own money invested in every loan we make
~24 hoursTo a straight answer from a real person, typically

Does this describe you?

Most of our borrowers arrive in one of six situations.

If one of these sounds like your week, we can usually tell you where you stand within a day.

“The bank said no — or hasn’t said anything.”

A decline usually reflects the bank’s credit box or timing, not the quality of your business. If you own real estate, there’s another path.

What to do after a decline

“I have to close on a deadline.”

An acquisition, a purchase contract, a maturing note. We underwrite the exit alongside the asset — and we’ll tell you early and honestly whether your date is realistic.

Acquisition financing

“My equity is stuck in the building.”

You own the property and need to put some of the value tied up in it to work — for growth, a repositioning, or a partner buyout. How much depends on value, existing liens, and lien position.

Borrowing against property you own

“My partner wants out.”

A retirement, a split, a divorce of interests — the business keeps running while the ownership changes. Secured by the real estate, structured around the transition.

Partner buyout financing

“There’s an offer on the table I don’t understand.”

Daily drafts, factor rates, stacked advances. Before you sign anything, know what the structure actually costs you.

How to read a financing offer

“I’m waiting on invoices to pay my people.”

If large or government customers owe you, a receivables-backed line can turn invoices you’ve already billed into working capital, depending on who owes you — available nationwide.

Receivables financing
See if you qualify in 60 seconds

Seven questions — no credit pull to see your result, no contact information. You see your result first.

Advising or representing someone else — broker, banker, CPA, attorney? Here’s how referrals work →

Why did we start BuildUp Capital?

Small business is the lifeblood of America. We fund it.

That isn’t a sentiment — it’s the federal government’s own arithmetic, and it’s the whole reason we lend.

46%
of private-sector employees work for a small business — 62 million people
61%
of America’s net new jobs since 1995 came from small businesses — 21 million jobs
99.9%
of all US firms are small businesses — 36 million of them, against about 21,000 large ones
44%
of GDP, as last measured by the SBA — 2014 data, still republished in 2026

One in five American families owns a piece of a privately held business — the highest share on record.

It’s also how ordinary business owners build wealth. When a business that employs people gets built, that’s where the wealth is. Our capital partners aren’t chasing a trade; they’re business builders who want their money supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs, secured by real assets and put to work by people who have run companies themselves.

Our mission

Put honest, fast capital in the hands of small-business owners the banks have left behind — structured to strengthen the business, never to take it.

Our vision

A generation of entrepreneurs who understand capital well enough to use it on their own terms — and who come back around the table one day as lenders themselves.

Our values

  • Rule one: don’t lose money. Real collateral, honest underwriting, our own capital in every loan.
  • Straight answers, fast. A real person, a straight answer, typically within 24 hours — including the answers you don’t want.
  • Operators, not underwriters. We read the business behind the numbers, because we’ve been the business.
  • Win-win-win. It only works when it works for the borrower, the capital partner, and us.

To a bank

You’re a loan in the portfolio.

A checklist that clears or doesn’t, read by an underwriting department that will never meet you.

To us

You’re a business with a plan and a deadline.

We’re operators — our team has built, bought, run, and sold companies, so we read your file the way you do.

10%+of our own capital in every loan, alongside our capital partners’
Workoutsour co-founder and CIO, Donna Cangelosi, spent years as a court-appointed federal trustee unwinding what happens when lenders don’t work with borrowers
Since 1993lending to business owners through every credit cycle since
▶ Meet BuildUp Capital · 2 min

Read our full story

Sources: SBA Office of Advocacy, Frequently Asked Questions About Small Business (February 2026) · SBA Office of Advocacy, Small Business GDP 1998–2014 · Federal Reserve, Survey of Consumer Finances (2022)

What “BuildUp” means

The whole idea is to keep moving up.

Build your company. Build your knowledge. Then invest in the next owner coming up behind you — one direction, and one rule underneath all of it.

Step 1

Build your company

Capital to grow, acquire, or reposition — structured to strengthen the business, not strain it.

Step 2

Build your knowledge

Plain explanations of how secured lending actually works, so you decide from understanding — not pressure. Next time you raise capital, you’ll know exactly what you’re signing.

Step 3

Invest in others

We succeed when our borrowers succeed. Our favorite arc: an owner whose business does so well they eventually come back around the table — funding the next generation of business owners themselves.

The foundationRule one of investing: don’t lose money. Every loan is secured by real estate we’d be comfortable owning — discipline before yield, always.

Why we exist

How small-business credit got this way

This isn’t a slogan about banks being villains — it’s a twenty-five-year structural shift you can read in the public data. Here’s the short version, with the sources.

01

Half the banks are gone

The number of FDIC-insured institutions fell from 8,833 in 2005 to 4,336 as of December 31, 2025 — and in the six years from 2011 through 2016, only six new banks opened in the entire country. Small banks specifically fell almost 46% between 2008 and 2023, and they are the ones who do this lending: they hold nearly 42% of all small-business commercial and real-estate loans while holding just 15% of industry assets. The FDIC’s own report says the continued decline in the number of small banks “could have significant adverse effects on access to credit for small businesses.”

FDIC, Statistics at a Glance (Q4 2025) · FDIC Community Banking Study (2020) · FDIC Small Business Lending Survey (2024)

02

The small loan stopped being worth making

The share of bank business loans under $1 million — nonfarm, nonresidential loans, the standard proxy for small-business lending — fell from 51% to 29% between 1998 and 2013. Today banks hold roughly $600 billion in business loans originated under $1 million — and the smallest banks hold nearly a third of them, while the largest banks supply about 18% of business loans below $1 million — though 33% of those below $100,000. The loan we make is precisely the loan the industry spent a generation walking away from.

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland (2013) · Fed Vice Chair Bowman, “Supporting Small Businesses” (2026)

03

Sixteen straight quarters of tightening

Through Q3 2025, banks reported tightening small-business credit standards for the 16th consecutive quarter. Where a business applies now changes its odds more than most owners realize: small banks fully approve 57% of applicants, large banks 43%. Full approval is the bar that matters, and most applicants clear a lower one: among firms rated medium or high credit risk, 61% got at least part of what they asked a small bank for, and 54% at a large bank. In fairness, and it matters: lending volume is growing again, up 13.4% year over year. The money moved; the credit box didn’t widen.

Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Small Business Lending Survey (Q3 2025) · Federal Reserve, Small Business Credit Survey (2026 Report on Employer Firms)

04

Good businesses, wrong rulebook

Of small businesses that applied for financing, 42% got everything they asked for and 22% got nothing. The single most common reason for a denial wasn’t credit score or weak sales — it was “lender requirements too strict” (46%). And 29% said the reason was that lenders don’t approve financing for businesses like theirs.

Federal Reserve Banks, Small Business Credit Survey — 2026 Report on Employer Firms

05

What faster approval can cost

In the same survey, SBA loans were denied 40% of the time — the worst denial rate of any product the survey tracks — while merchant cash advances were denied just 12% of the time. What that easy door costs, in the Federal Reserve’s own words: cash-advance APRs “may exceed 80 percent or even rise to triple digits” — and in the Fed’s own worked example, a 1.15 factor rate with typical fees, repaid over six months, comes to roughly a 70% APR. Business borrowers have no legal right to be told an APR at all — Truth in Lending covers consumers, not companies. In 2025 the New York Attorney General resolved a case against Yellowstone Capital and 25 affiliated companies with a $1.065 billion judgment, including $534 million in cancelled small-business debt.

SBCS 2026 · Federal Reserve Board & Cleveland Fed, “Uncertain Terms” (2019) · New York Attorney General, $1.065 billion settlement (2025)

06

Which is why private lenders exist

By the second half of 2025, private-credit loans outstanding in the United States had reached about $1.4 trillion — roughly a tenth of the total debt of US nonfinancial corporations. The IMF’s explanation of why is that “banks appear to have become less willing to lend to middle-market firms with riskier profiles in the United States and Europe,” after post-crisis rules raised the capital banks must hold against those loans. That’s the gap we work in — at the small-business end of it: private-capital speed, bank-grade underwriting, operator judgment, real collateral, and our own money in every deal.

International Monetary Fund, Global Financial Stability Report, ch. 2 (April 2024) · Federal Reserve Board, Financial Stability Report, box 4.1 (May 2026)

What we offer

Every structure we lend in — pick the one that fits

Every loan is built to the deal, not to a product sheet. Some are secured by real estate, some by the invoices you’ve already billed, and some by both. Here’s the full menu, then the actual parameters and what we don’t lend on.

Secured by real estate

Secured by receivables · nationwide

No real estate required — these are secured by who owes you, and they’re available in all 50 states.

Indicative terms

The actual parameters

Loan size$100K–$10MBusiness-purpose loans, sized to the deal
Term6–18 monthsShort by design — structured around your exit
Rates10%+Priced to term, collateral, lien position, and borrower profile
Fees1–4%Origination fee stated in your term sheet before you proceed · Underwriting deposit credited at closing · 1% referral fee where applicable
PaymentsMonthly, interest-onlyNo daily or weekly drafts. Principal at your exit — prepayment allowed.
Speed~10 daysClosing typically around 10 days once diligence items are received; term sheet typically within 5 business days
CollateralCommercial / ResidentialReal estate with proven market demand
Lien positionFirst or SecondCross-collateralization available
Geography9 statesTX · CO · UT · NV · AZ · OK · ID · MT · WY · receivables nationwide

Our rates reflect short-term bridge capital. These loans are structured to be refinanced into long-term debt — often back at your bank — within the loan term. We plan that exit with you from day one. Rates depend on term, collateral, lien position, and borrower profile, and are subject to change. Not every borrower qualifies for the lowest rate.

We like creative deals — and we have the expertise to make them work.

Complex isn’t a problem to us; it’s the work. A bank’s underwriting has to fit a standard box, so a deal with moving parts often can’t be underwritten there at all. Our team has spent decades inside operating businesses, so the situations that stop a checklist are the ones we know how to structure.

Cross-collateralized structuresMultiple properties or assets securing one loan — we structure what a standard credit box can’t hold.
Complex entities & ownershipMulti-entity structures, partnerships, trusts, buyouts mid-transition — we’ve untangled harder.
Financials that need interpretationAdd-backs, transition years, seller statements — we read the business behind the numbers, not just the numbers.
First time taking on debtWe’ll help you understand the structure, the obligations, and the exit — before you sign, not after.
Bank-declined, time-critical deals“Not yet” from the bank doesn’t mean “no” from the market. It usually just means the clock is running.
Real collateral, alwaysEvery structure above is still secured by real estate we’d be comfortable owning. That part never flexes.

Complex isn’t the same as weak. We decline weak deals. We underwrite complex ones.

The cost, plainly

What this capital costs, and how the cost is built

Four parts — that’s the whole structure. We state our rate, our fees, and your terms in the term sheet before you sign — and we tell you which third-party closing costs to expect.

Part one

Our rate

From 10%, priced to the risk in each deal — term, collateral, lien position, and borrower profile. On our real-estate-secured loans, payments are monthly, interest-only, so you’re servicing interest while the plan runs, with principal repaid at your exit. No daily or weekly drafts. And prepayment is allowed — if your exit comes early, you can repay early.

Part two

Our fees

An origination fee of 1–4%, stated in your term sheet before you proceed — plus a 1% referral fee where a referring partner is involved. Nothing to see whether you qualify.

Part three

Underwriting deposit

Once you accept the term sheet, we collect an underwriting deposit before diligence begins, and it is credited toward your closing costs at closing. It exists so both sides are committing real resources to a deal we intend to close — the amount is stated in your term sheet before you sign anything.

Part four

Third-party closing costs

Title, escrow, appraisal, recording, legal — set by the providers, not by us. We don’t control these, so we won’t pretend to quote them; we will tell you which ones to expect before you sign.

A worked exampleHypothetical, for shape — not a quote: a $1,000,000 loan at 12% interest-only is $10,000 a month, a 2% origination fee is $20,000, and the $1,000,000 principal is repaid at your exit. Run your own numbers →

Rates depend on term, collateral, lien position, and borrower profile, and are subject to change. Not every borrower qualifies for the lowest rate.

Are we a match?

Who this is for — and who it isn’t

You shouldn’t need a phone call to find out you were never a fit. Check yourself against the real criteria.

We’re likely a fit if…

  • You or your business owns real estate — commercial or residential, in TX, CO, UT, NV, AZ, OK, ID, MT, or WY (or you’re acquiring property there). Owners do pledge personal property, including a home, when they choose to — these are business-purpose loans, and we like borrowers who bet on themselves.
  • You need $100,000 to $10,000,000 for a business purpose — acquisition, expansion, partner buyout, or refinance.
  • There’s a clear plan and a real exit — a sale, a refinance, or an event that repays the loan inside 6–18 months.
  • Credit is generally 650+ — and complexity in the financials is fine. Complex isn’t weak.

We’re not the right lender if…

  • There’s no real estate in the picture — every BuildUp loan is property-secured. (Exception: invoices from large or government customers — receivables financing is nationwide.)
  • The property is outside our nine states — we’ll tell you in one conversation, not after weeks.
  • You need long-term permanent financing — our capital is a bridge to that, not a substitute for it.
  • The need is personal, not business — we make business-purpose loans only.

If that’s you, you still deserve a straight pointer: your local bank or credit union, an SBA lender, or a nonprofit CDFI is usually the honest next call.

Where we fit

Where in a company’s life this kind of capital fits

Capital needs change across a company’s life — and because we’ve run companies, we can usually see the next stage coming. We lend in the window where a business has real operating history, real estate to secure the loan, and a clear plan — and we structure for where you’re going, not just where you are.

BUILDUP SWEET SPOTLaunchGrowthMaturity & ScaleTransitionRenewal / ExitExpansion capitalAcquisition & buyoutReposition for saleBusiness valueToo early — no historyCase by case
Business value over timeWhere BuildUp lendsCapital need we fund

We’re not startup capital and we’re not a last resort. We fund established, real-estate-owning businesses in their highest-leverage moments — when the right capital turns a good company into a more valuable one.

Education

Understand it before you decide

Most people never get a straight explanation of how this kind of capital actually works. We’re changing that — on the page and on our podcast. Start with the track that fits you.

For Borrowers

Understand your capital before you take it on

How secured lending works, where your business is in its life cycle, and how to structure a deal that strengthens your company instead of sinking it.

  • 1
    Secured Asset Lending 101What it is, how it works, and how it compares to other instruments.
  • 2
    The Business Life Cycle & When You Need CapitalFind the moment the right capital creates the most value.
  • 3
    Declined by the Bank or SBA? What It Really MeansWhy a “no” is usually about complexity or timing — not your business.
  • 4
    How to Buy a Business (and structure the deal right)Owner overlap, protective covenants, and the traps to avoid.
Explore borrower educationListen to the podcast

Educational content only. Nothing here is investment, legal, or tax advice — but it’s the honest groundwork most lenders never give you.

Why BuildUp

We’re not bankers who discovered lending. We’re operators who became lenders.

Our entire investment team has built, run, bought, and sold businesses. We read your deal the way you do — as a business plan, not just a collateral file. We structure every loan around your exit, we only fund deals we believe will succeed — and we invest time in helping our borrowers get there: structure, introductions, and a straight read on the plan. If this is your first time taking on debt, we’ll make sure you understand exactly what you’re signing and why.

Not loan-to-own

We succeed only when you do

Some private lenders profit when borrowers fail. Our model is the opposite — we invest our own capital in every deal, so your success is our return.

Operator underwriting

We’ve sat in your seat

Decades of combined experience building, running, buying, and selling businesses across our markets. We underwrite like owners, because we’ve been owners.

Workout-grade expertise

Deep experience for hard moments

Our co-founder and Chief Investment Officer, Donna Cangelosi, is a former federal trustee and one of the nation’s specialists in complex real estate workouts. We underwrite so your deal never needs that expertise — but if the unforeseeable happens, you’ll want a partner who has it.

Meet our team

How we operate

How we work, in seven plain commitments

1

Verified, not assumed

Every deal is independently diligenced. No shortcuts.

2

Skin in the game

We invest our own capital — at least 10% — in every loan we make.

3

We lend where we have expertise

Markets we know. Business models we understand. Assets with real demand.

4

Real collateral, conservatively valued

We only lend against assets we’d be comfortable owning.

5

Every deal has a plan B

We structure multiple exit paths before we fund a single dollar.

6

A response, typically within 24 hours

Brokers, borrowers, and partners know where they stand.

7

Technology-enabled, human-reviewed

Automation makes us fast. People make us right.

Declined by your bank or SBA lender?

A decline usually means complexity or timing — not the quality of your business. Read our guide to what a bank “no” really means, and what experienced operators do next.

Read the guide

Our commitment

We invest our own capital in every loan we make. We succeed when our borrowers succeed.

When we underwrite your deal, we’re underwriting our own money. That’s why we’re selective, and why we’d rather tell you early that the numbers don’t work than let you find out late. And when the unexpected happens mid-loan, we work the problem with you — workouts, workarounds, and everything in between — instead of pushing you toward default. If you qualify, you’ll know quickly. If you don’t, we’ll help you understand where to go next.

Common questions

Questions people ask us

Is BuildUp Capital a hard money lender?
We’re a private lender making custom, deal-built loans. Hard money lenders traditionally underwrite collateral alone; we underwrite the business, the exit plan, and the collateral — we build the structure to the deal, and we invest our own capital in every loan. If you’ve been searching for a hard money lender, you’ll likely find our terms comparable and our underwriting far more partnership-oriented.
What loan sizes and terms do you offer?
Business-purpose loans from $100,000 to $10,000,000, secured by commercial or residential real estate, with 6–18 month terms and rates from 10%, priced to the risk in each deal. Rates depend on term, collateral, lien position, and borrower profile, and are subject to change. Not every borrower qualifies for the lowest rate. Term sheets typically issue within 5 business days, with closing typically around 10 days once diligence items are received.
What types of loans does BuildUp offer?
Real-estate-secured business loans — bridge, fix-and-flip, acquisition, cross-collateralized, second-lien, refinance/partner-buyout, and asset-based lending, from $100,000 to $10,000,000. We also offer receivables-backed lines of credit — payroll funding, government-receivables financing, and invoice factoring — secured by your invoices and available nationwide.
Can I use multiple properties as collateral for one loan?
Yes. We structure cross-collateralized loans where multiple properties or assets secure a single loan — a structure most banks decline for complexity rather than credit.
What if my bank or SBA lender declined me?
A bank decline usually reflects complexity or timing, not the quality of your business. We regularly fund deals declined by banks and SBA lenders — including complex entity structures, financials that need interpretation, and time-critical closings — provided they’re secured by real estate in Texas, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Oklahoma, Idaho, Montana, or Wyoming.
Do you take second lien positions?
Yes. We lend in first or second lien position against commercial or residential real estate, subject to combined exposure we’re comfortable with on the asset.
What credit profile do you look for?
We lend to creditworthy borrowers — generally a 650+ credit score — with real estate to secure the loan and a clear plan for the capital. Complexity in your financials is fine; weak credit and no plan is not. We’ll always give you a straight answer typically within 24 hours.
What if my financials aren’t perfectly clean?
Add-backs, transition years, and seller financials are normal in real businesses. Our team has built and run companies, so we read the business behind the numbers. Complex isn’t the same as weak — we decline weak deals and underwrite complex ones.
What does “preapproval” mean here?
A fast, honest read on whether your deal fits what we lend on — state, collateral, size, and plan. It isn’t a loan approval and it isn’t a commitment on either side; it’s how we make sure we never waste your week on a deal we’d never do. You see the result before we ask for anything.
What documents will you actually ask for?
Typically: entity documents, a current debt schedule, property or receivables information, and financials we can read the business from — add-backs and messy years are fine. We send you the exact list after preapproval, so you gather things once, not in dribbles.
What’s in the term sheet?
The loan amount, our rate, our fees, the term, and your repayment structure — in plain English, before you sign anything. We also tell you which third-party closing costs to expect (title, escrow, appraisal), because those exist on every real-estate loan from any lender.
What happens at closing?
Title and escrow do their work, documents are signed, the lien is recorded, and funds wire to your account. From there payments are monthly and interest-only, principal repays at your exit — and prepayment is allowed if your exit comes early.
Will my information be sold or shared with brokers?
No. Your information goes to our own team — we don’t sell inquiries, and we don’t pass your file to brokers. If we’re not the right lender for your deal, we’ll tell you directly and point you somewhere credible — we won’t hand your file around.
Are you a direct lender or a broker?
A direct private lender. The underwriting decision and the capital are ours, and we invest at least 10% of our own money in every loan we make — we’re not packaging your file to shop it to other lenders.
Is there an upfront fee?
There’s nothing to pay to see whether you qualify, and nothing to get a term sheet. Once you accept the term sheet, we collect an underwriting deposit before diligence begins, and it is credited toward your closing costs at closing. It exists so both sides are committing real resources to a deal we intend to close — the amount is stated in your term sheet before you sign anything. We do it because underwriting a real-estate-secured loan means ordering third-party work and putting our team on your file — the deposit means both sides are committing to a deal we intend to close, and it comes back to you as a credit at closing.
How do repayments work?
On our real-estate-secured loans, payments are monthly, interest-only across the 6–18 month term, with the principal repaid at your exit — the sale, refinance, or event the loan was structured around. No daily or weekly drafts. Prepayment is allowed — if your exit comes early, you can repay early. Payoff terms are stated in your term sheet before you sign. (Receivables-backed lines repay as your invoices pay.)
Do you lend outside the states you serve?
Our real-estate-secured loans are made only in markets we know firsthand — Texas, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Oklahoma, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. If your property is outside these states, we’re not the right lender for a real-estate loan, and we’ll tell you typically within 24 hours, not after weeks of process. Our receivables-backed lines of credit, however, are available nationwide.
How fast can you actually close?
Term sheets typically issue within 5 business days, with closing typically around 10 days once diligence items are received. Speed comes from preparation, not skipped steps — we verify everything, we’re just structured to do it fast. A member of our team responds to every inquiry typically within 24 hours.

Get started

If you’re not sure whether you’re a fit, that’s fine. Ask us.

A real person reads every inquiry and typically responds within 24 hours. No call center, no automated maybe.

See if you qualify in 60 secondsGive us a call

Your information goes to our own team — we don’t sell inquiries, and we don’t pass your file to brokers.