Pursuit
At a Glance
The first call for a Northeast buyer who wants a mission lender, or whom a conventional bank has passed on.
- Pricing
- Custom Pricing, Loan products (no fee to engage). SBA 7(a) up to $5M with a 10% acquisition down payment, plus 504 and microloan programs; a mission lender that also serves borrowers conventional banks decline. Rates and terms quoted per deal; confirm directly.
- Best For
- Buyers in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, or Pennsylvania, especially women, minority, and veteran owners, who want a mission lender's SBA acquisition financing
- Track Record
- A nonprofit CDFI serving Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
- Type
- Bank (lends directly)
- Footprint
- New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Illinois, Delaware. It lends beyond the states it names, so one it does not name is worth asking about rather than ruling out.
- 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 $10k.
- The homepage states the range and the ceiling exceeds the guaranteed program's cap, so both ends are the lender's own numbers and not a restatement of the agency's.
- 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.
- Published Terms
- SBA 7(a), 504, and microloans for acquisitions. Its 10% down payment is stated as the program's minimum rather than as its own floor, in its own words.
- Roadmap Stages
- 3. Set Up & Fund the Search5. Diligence & Close the Deal
Pros and Cons
Pros
- A Community Development Financial Institution with more than fifteen loan programs, so a borrower a conventional bank turns down still has a path
- Runs the full SBA toolkit for acquisitions: 7(a) up to $5M, 504, and microloans, at the standard 10% acquisition down payment
- An explicit focus on women, minority, and veteran business owners, a lane most acquisition lenders do not emphasize
- Listed among the top SBA 7(a) lenders alongside Live Oak, Byline, Huntington, and Celtic
Cons
- Regional: it lends only in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, so a deal outside that footprint needs another lender
- As a mission-driven community lender it skews toward smaller loans rather than the combination structures that reach past the $5M 7(a) cap
- Rates and terms are quoted per deal and not published, so a comparison quote is still worth getting
What Searchers Say
Program breadth, CDFI status, footprint, and acquisition-loan focus verified against Pursuit's own site; inclusion among top SBA 7(a) lenders per third-party acquisition-lender rankings as of 2026.
How to Approach
Pursuit is a bank, so this is how that kind of lender comes in, what it weighs, and how to arrive ready.
The Typical Arc
- A prequalification on you and the target, often from the first email.
- A full application and the bank's own underwrite of the deal.
- A term sheet, then closing on the SBA's timeline, commonly two to four months.
What It Weighs
- Whether the business's cash flow covers the debt with room to spare.
- Your experience relative to the business you are buying.
- Your equity injection and how clean the financials are.
How to Prepare
- Model the payment and coverage before you call. SBA Acquisition Calculator
- Underwrite the specific deal end to end. Underwrite a Deal
- Show where every dollar comes from and goes. Sources & Uses Builder