SBA acquisition intelligence

Buy a million-dollar business with 10% down.

SBA 7(a) requires a minimum equity injection of 10% of the total project cost, and a seller note on full standby can cover up to half of it. On a $1M deal that is about $100k down, and sometimes half that in cash.

No broker math. Every number traced to its source.

From the federal loan file

And no, buying is not the risky path.

Only 1.70% of SBA loans used to buy an existing business fail. Startups fail at 3.65%.

Failure = the loan was charged off, meaning SBA wrote it off as a loss. FY2020-22 cohort, 137,671 loans, federal loan file.

What you get

Everything between the LOI and the closing table

Three things, done properly: the deal, the math, and the lender.

Study a real deal

One listed business a day, run through our standard SBA 7(a) structure: what we would pay, how we would fund it, and which lenders we would call.

See the latest deal

Run the numbers

Model SDE, seller note, equity injection, and DSCR under current SOP rules. No broker math, every assumption visible.

Open the analyzer

Pick the right lender

843 lenders funded acquisitions in the federal file. We profile the 249 most active in depth: loan counts, median sizes, and the rates they actually approve.

See the league table
The league table

Who actually funds acquisitions

Top 7(a) change-of-ownership lenders, FY2025 to FY2026 Q3.

#LenderLoans$M approvedMedian sizeMedian rate
1Huntington National Bank1,476$1,182$349,5009.25%
2Live Oak Banking Company1,197$1,553$825,0009.00%
3First Internet Bank of Indiana395$551$939,00010.00%
4Byline Bank289$365$902,00010.00%
5Hanmi Bank215$182$657,0009.00%
6GBank174$521$2,840,0008.50%lowest

Source: SBA 7(a) FOIA file, change-of-ownership loans, as of June 30, 2026. Methodology

See all 249 profiled lenders

Know if the deal pencils before the lender does.

Model SDE, seller note, equity injection, and DSCR under current SOP rules. No broker math, every assumption visible.

40,555
acquisition loans since FY2020
$709,300
median loan, FY2025 to FY2026 Q3
9.25%
median initial rate
843
active acquisition lenders
Latest from the binder

Notes from the buyer's chair

Essays, data studies, and rule breakdowns for people buying a small business with SBA financing.

All articles