Pursuit
At a Glance
The one desk this round that wrote a page for the buyer, and a lender for the deal a bank turned down; if the target sits in its six states, it belongs on the list.
- Pricing
- Custom Pricing, Loan products; terms by term sheet. Its 7(a) page publishes a floor of $50,000 and the program's $5 million ceiling, variable rates set case by case over a negotiated spread, and terms of ten years for general funding and twenty-five for real estate; no fee schedule (per pursuitlending.com, September 2026).
- Best For
- A buyer in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Delaware or Illinois whose deal a bank has passed on, since the lender calls itself the stepping stone to one
- Track Record
- Formerly New York Business Development Corporation, rebranded with two affiliates under one name, funded by member banks, with a chief executive named on its leadership page.
- Type
- Non-bank lender (lends its own money, no deposits)
- Footprint
- Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania only, by its contact page, from a Latham, New York headquarters. It presents that list as its whole territory.
- 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.
- The per-state service pages carry it, one sentence each, naming both the Preferred Lenders Program and SBA Express. The acquisition page does not.
- Deal Size
- $500k to $5M.
- States a floor: the smallest loan it publishes is $50k.
- Its 7(a) page says the program makes funding from $50,000 to $5 million possible, which is the floor for that product; its products page says loans from $10,000 across all its products, a different product set.
- Searcher Practice
- A general SBA lending desk, branch-driven.
- Two acquisition pages, one on the loan and one on acquisitions generally, both addressed to an owner who has already found the business and both explaining structure and eligibility. Nothing on either speaks to the search that comes first.
- Practice Lending
- A practice lending program that names buying a practice.
- Its dental and medical practice pages lend to dentists, physicians and optometrists to start, buy into or acquire a practice, and print funding from $10,000 to $5.5 million across its programs; both pages were last modified in 2022.
- Published Terms
- 7(a) from $50,000 to the program's $5 million at variable rates set case by case, ten years for general funding and twenty-five for real estate; a valuation at the buyer's cost past $250,000; no fee schedule.
- Roadmap Stages
- 3. Set Up & Fund the Search5. Diligence & Close the Deal
Pros and Cons
Pros
- A page whose subject is buying a business, naming an existing business, a franchise and a partner's share in the order a buyer reads them
- Publishes a 7(a) floor, $50,000, which most lenders here do not, and a thirty to forty-five day approval window after a complete application
- An application that starts online and runs largely by email, with loan officers named by region and phone
- Written for the borrower who does not currently meet bank loan requirements, in its own words, and calls itself a stepping stone to a bank
Cons
- Lends in six states only, by its own contact page, and its own pages count them as four, five and six
- Its 7(a) rates are variable and set case by case, with no fee schedule published
- Its products page still counts 2020's lending, and its 7(a) page still markets a program the SBA has since changed
- Names no search fund, searcher or acquisition entrepreneur
What Searchers Say
Read on its buying-a-business page, its 7(a) and 504 pages, its service locations, its what-to-expect and how-to-apply pages, its leadership and loan officer pages, its rebrand page and its contact page. No searcher-forum discussion of the desk was found.
How to Approach
Pursuit is a non-bank lender, so this is how that kind of lender comes in, what it weighs, and how to arrive ready.
The Typical Arc
- An application straight to the lender, with no branch relationship to build first.
- Its own underwrite, funded from its own balance sheet rather than deposits.
- A term sheet, then closing on the SBA's timeline like any 7(a).
What It Weighs
- The same coverage math a bank runs, since the SBA's rules are the SBA's rules.
- Whether the deal fits a lane it already lends in, which is usually wider than a regional bank's.
- How the file reads on paper, because there is no relationship to lean on.
How to Prepare
- Model the payment and coverage before you apply. SBA Acquisition Calculator
- Underwrite the specific deal end to end. Underwrite a Deal
- Price it against a bank's offer, since non-bank rates often run higher. SBA Acquisition Calculator