# Northwest Bank

Where Live Oak's search-fund lending team went.

A nationwide Preferred SBA lender (NASDAQ: NWBI) whose acquisition-entrepreneur platform, built in 2025-2026 by the bankers who ran Live Oak's search-fund practice, structures SBA 7(a) financing to the $5M program cap for buyers, partner buyouts, and management buyouts.

- Category: SBA & Acquisition Lenders
- Pricing model: Custom Pricing
- Where it fits: Set Up & Fund the Search, Diligence & Close the Deal
- Website: https://www.northwest.bank/commercial/commercial-financing-solutions/small-business-administration/

## At a Glance

If you want the bankers who defined [searcher](https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/searcher) SBA lending, this is now where they are; still get a second [term sheet](https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/term-sheet).

- Track Record: An established nationwide SBA platform joined in 2025-2026 by the bankers who ran Live Oak's search-fund practice.
- Type: Bank (lends directly)
- Footprint: Nationwide.
- Approval Authority: Says it holds SBA Preferred Lender status, so it can approve the loan itself rather than sending the file to the agency for a second look.
- Deal Size: $500k to $5M.
  - Publishes no floor. Most of this shelf gives a ceiling that is really the agency's own cap, and no minimum at all.
- Searcher Practice: A dedicated searcher and acquisition practice, handled remotely.
  - Search fund lending named as a specialty on its own SBA page, in the sentence "We specialize in Search Fund Lending", beside business acquisitions and partner buyouts as a named use and a published figure for what it will fund a purchase up to.
- Published Terms: Ten years on a business acquisition and twenty-five on real estate, financing goodwill and structuring seller participation.
- Past the SBA Cap: Sponsor Finance: EBITDA between $3M and $15M. Loan sizes from $5 million to $30 million per transaction.
- Who the Desk Says It Lends To: Private equity funds, independent sponsors, and family offices.
  - Across the United States.

## What It Costs

Loan products (no fee to engage). SBA 7(a) to the $5M program cap; free weekly Wednesday searcher office hours. Rates and terms quoted per deal; confirm current terms directly.

## Best For

Searchers and [owner-operators](https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/owner-operator) pursuing SBA-backed acquisitions of $1M to $15M businesses who want the lending team that built Live Oak's [search-fund](https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/search-fund) practice

## Pros and Cons

- Pro: Lisa Forrest (nine years at Live Oak) and Sarah Andrews (fourteen years) rebuilt their search-fund lending practice here in 2025-2026, so the pattern recognition that made Live Oak the default searcher lender moved with them
- Pro: Preferred SBA Lender status means delegated authority to approve loans without a separate SBA credit review, which speeds decisions
- Pro: Names search fund lending as a specialty on its own SBA page, in those words, beside business acquisitions and [partner buyouts](https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/partner-buyout) as named uses
- Pro: Free weekly Wednesday office hours, and the team will review a deal before the [LOI](https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/loi) is signed
- Pro: Publishes a business purchase figure of up to $8 million on its own SBA page, and names the structure beside it rather than leaving it to a call
- Con: The dedicated ETA platform is new, stood up in 2025-2026, so its track record under this team at this bank is still short next to the practice they left
- Con: As a nationwide program run by a small named team, capacity and personal attention ride on the same two bankers the whole community is now routing to
- Con: The eight-million purchase figure on its page is a deal size and not a loan size: its own guaranteed money stops at the $5M program cap, and seller participation is the named way past it
- Con: Rates and terms are quoted per deal and not published, so a comparison quote elsewhere is still worth getting

## What Searchers Say

The 2025-2026 move of Lisa Forrest and Sarah Andrews from Live Oak to Northwest Bank was widely noted in searcher communities (Searchfunder, EBIT Community) as the search-fund lending team relocating. Practice details verified against the bank's SBA page and community coverage.

## Compared With

- Which desk when the deal is bigger than the SBA cap? (https://searchspheresource.com/resources/compare/northwest-bank-vs-live-oak-bank.md)

## Sources

- https://www.northwest.bank/commercial/commercial-financing-solutions/small-business-administration/
- https://searchfunder.com/post/lisa-forrest-and-sarah-andrews-join-northwest-bank
- https://ebitcommunity.com/p/eta-community-spotlight-lisa-forrest-northwest-bank

Also on this site: https://searchspheresource.com/resources/category/lender.md
Source: https://searchspheresource.com/resources/northwest-bank
Last checked: 2026-10-06

Site index for machines: https://searchspheresource.com/llms.txt